The Candle Light
by Splasher
Summary: There was a candlelight in ever darkness, and in every darkness there was hope. The hope could stink of odor and stench, but it was still hope in every aspect. The candlelight was rotten. But the candlelight was light. POV of OC in Otogakure. Complete.
1. Chapter 1

_Author's Notes_: Konnichiwa! Don't let the first chapter fool you into thinking each and every chapter is this short. Actually any of the eight chapters could range from five to twenty pages. The Japanese words were added in order to set a more "foreign" mood. Because obviously these characters aren't natively English, and so I've put as many Japanese "phrases" as I can to show how the characters aren't English. Also reviews are nice to help me improve! Thanks!

_Disclaimer_: I do not own Kishimoto's characters, but I do own my original character Akiko and this specific plot.

_Japanese Phrases_:  
_Hai_: Yes! (usually said after a command has been given)  
_-Sama_: A title given to a person with much higher rank than oneself  
_Gomen nasai_: I am sorry.  
_Arigato_: Thank you.

_**Warning**_**: This fan-fiction contains spoilers from the Naruto Manga up to Manga Chapter 352.**

* * *

The Candle Light

_Obedience_

Sick and twisted, blood and blood! I, still eight years old, had a sense of right and wrong as all children had, yet I still stood by his side for all of those years—never longing for escape, never hiding from him deep within the dark, and _never_ disobeying his commands.

Disobeying was dangerous.

"Hand me the scalpel," he said, hardly even glancing to make sure I was listening. He didn't need to make sure. I was always listening.

I handed him the scalpel from where he had placed it on the table, just as I was told.

"Give her a sedative, too," Kabuto-sama added. "The mental trauma will be too great for her age if she witnesses this pain."

Once again, I did what he had commanded. I pricked her arm with the needle, the needle carrying the sedative—I did so gently. My hands were too gentle, Kabuto-sama had always said. He told me that I was not fit to be a part of his work full of cutting, dissecting, and all possible things you could experiment on one simple body. But he included me in his experiments anyway without another word.

At once, the sedative succeeded, and the young girl stopped struggling against the binding which was holding her against the table. Her body was nude and open to move more freely when performing the operations. I sympathized with her silently, with only an expression on my face.

After he cleaned the skin, Kabuto-sama began cutting the girl's arm with his acquired instrument. The process was long and time-consuming. I was conditioned to the nausea, which accompanied his experiments. Blood no longer sickened me, yet the thought of harming another person for no reason was still disgusting.

"So amazing," Kabuto-sama commented, "the human body is." He had finished cutting and now was awaiting me to hold the skin open while he manually repaired the destroyed Chakra lines.

"Hai, Kabuto-sama," I answered, a habit I had grown over my eight years of serving him.

He had finished untangling the lines, and moved to the other side of the table, which was closer to her other arm. "Sew that up while I cut the other arm."

"Hai, Kabuto-sama."

I reached for the needle to stitch the cut as silence soon followed.

Silence. I enjoyed silence. It was the only constant part of this world, I had lived in my entire life. None whom I knew spoke frequently, and in turn I was left to ponder my life—with my own thoughts. Not Kabuto-sama's or Orochimaru-sama's thoughts. My own thoughts.

After I was done with my work, I moved to hold open the other wound Kabuto-sama had just finished creating. And soon I stitched it up, just like the other one.

"Is that all, Kabuto-sama?"

"Yes. When she wakes up, put her back in her cell. I need to fix the DNA strand, I implanted in her body, so it will work on her Chakra pathways as well." He strolled away, deeper into his laboratory, off to find better chemicals or better techniques. Over and over again, every day. My assistance was frequently required, for he had little time to dwell on simple injuries or mistakes. Healing techniques were the only Jutsu I knew, and he put them to good use for his malicious ways.

"Hai, Kabuto-sama," I said, even though he had already left.

The sedative I injected would wear off in about an hour. I knew the girl would be in extreme pain when she awoke because the stitches and the rearranged Chakra pathways.

Unlike everyone I knew in Otogakure, I could not be so negligent of others' pain. Pulling a chair up, I sat down and began the simple healing Jutsu on the stitches. The skin would heal faster, at least.

After half an hour, I switched to the other arm while struggling not to exhaust myself. A full hour of healing could take my energy away from me. Hopefully Kabuto-sama would let me return to my room after I was done locking the girl back up. But I was rarely lucky enough for a break.

Besides, healing the girl from intolerable pain was my decision, and I would face its consequences.

Another half-hour passed, and the girl began to stir. I knew she would wake up in only seconds. I also knew how difficult locking her in a cell would be. Most likely, she was just my age. Perhaps, weak as well through all her experiences. But I was weak from healing her wounds, too.

Her eyes popped open, and I watched as her face transformed into a grimace from the pain. She screamed.

"I'm sorry," I told her softly. "The pain will subside in a few hours, I promise. I'm not allowed to give you any medicine for it." She did not change her behavior, yet I knew she had heard me. Just as I reached to untie her, she somehow slapped my hand away, even though her own hand was secured.

"Don't touch me anymore!"

I stifled a slight whimper at her pain and repeated, "I'm sorry." Holding down her hand, I used my free fingers to undo the binding on her wrist. Then I moved to her legs and her other hand.

The minute she was released, she jumped off the medical table with motivation to escape. Desperately trying to stop her, I was pushed down to the ground, and the girl was soon trying to open the locked door, soon discovering that I had the only nearby key out.

"Kabuto-sama will be very angry," I whispered when she came back with new intentions of attaining my key.

Wincing from the pain, she shook her head angrily. "I don't care! Give me that key!"

"He won't hurt you. I meant he will be angry at me," I explained, "because I failed to lock you back in your cell."

She paused, glancing frantically from me to the door.

"I would understand your choice to escape. I just thought you should know he has a replacement, sitting right here, when you do manage to get out."

The girl bit her lip. "Then sorry. But I need to get out of here now."

I heard Kabuto-sama's footsteps entering the room before anything could happen. "Akiko," he began sternly, "what is going on? I told you to bring her back to her cell, not to let her go on some wild rampage!"

Keeping my head bowed, I turned toward him from my place on the ground. "Gomen nasai, Kabuto-sama! Gomen nasai."

He frowned at me, and walked forward to restrain the girl. "You are not forgiven, Akiko."

I watched him take the young girl out of the room, no doubt to bring her back to her cell.

"Gomen nasai, gomen nasai . . ." I mumbled endlessly, neither standing nor moving from my position on the ground. Kabuto-sama was never in a good mood when interrupted from his work. I should have brought her to the cell before she had woken up, and I should especially not have wasted my energy healing her. "Gomen nasai, Kabuto-sama."

He had returned in almost no time at all, and grabbed me by my arm to take me deeper into his lab—into the sickness.

"Akiko, I was planning on letting you sleep early today, but I guess you can't handle the extra time to yourself," Kabuto-sama scolded. "Instead start healing the more urgent wounds of some of my other experiments."

I nodded. "Hai, Kabuto-sama." More healing . . . I didn't think my body could take much more than another hour. Chakra control was not something I was extremely skilled at.

After stitching up the most urgent wound I found, my hand illuminated to a green so that I could begin healing. The seventeen-year-old boy in front of me was unconscious—probably from the loss of blood. I would have left him in stitches, but it felt wrong to allow him to wake up to such pain.

The long hours stretched on; I knew, at least, four had passed. Somehow I was still standing, despite my exhaustion. After a while, I didn't heal them with Jutsu, and simply repaired wounds manually.

One older man I came across was still awake as I stitched him up. He grunted occasionally but did not resist.

"I'm sorry," I told him when he groaned a bit louder.

He struggled to shake his head. "Don't be. You're only trying to help, and I know you're exhausted."

I sighed in relief. "Arigato."

A pause.

"You look just like my daughter, you know." His words startled me, for, when his eyes closed, I had assumed he had finally found slumber.

"Your daughter?"

"Yeah. Most likely, dead now though. Couldn't save her from the Sound ninja. That's how I ended up here." His eyes were still shut tight.

I bit my lip as I finished my work on him. "Gomen nasai . . ."

"Don't be."

I nodded, even though he was not looking, and ran off. Sometimes Kabuto-sama left earlier to serve Orochimaru-sama. Maybe I could return to my room and be scolded in the morning for leaving the lab alone. Besides, I couldn't heal anymore—not when my hands shook, just as they did when I used Chakra too long.

My hopes were crushed when I saw Kabuto-sama, sitting where he had been before.

"Where are you off to?" he asked without looking up. I could still hear the wicked smile in his voice though.

"I can't . . . anymore," I answered, my voice coming out in wheezes, rather than words. I surprised even myself with my lack of energy.

Concerned, Kabuto-sama glanced at me, yet his smile never left his face. "Go to your room and rest," he said. "I'll be there in a moment."

"Hai, Kabuto-sama."

I always obeyed. I never disobeyed. So I left his laboratory and strolled down the halls to my room.

Disobeying was dangerous. I was only a child, but even a child could mature early in the stage of growing. I knew danger when I sensed it.

Eight years old . . . Somewhat early, one might say, to have a sense of rules and how disobeying those rules could lead to problems I would rather not mention. But I was eight, and my life required maturity . . . Or maybe not maturity but simply obedience.

Disobeying was dangerous. I knew that all too well.

I found the halls disturbing. Whether during night or day, there was hardly any light. Just the candlelight, the _dark_ candlelight that feasted upon light itself. This place knew no light—and neither did I.

I was born here. Maybe I had seen the sun when I was an infant, but I could not remember any real ray of light that illuminated the world. When I was four, I imagined what the sun looked like, how it worked, how it shined. But pretending could never become reality for me, I had learned sooner, rather than later.

I finally reached my door, and opened it slowly as if I were afraid of what lingered inside. The room was pitch-black; my earlier-lit candle must have blown out while I was gone.

First my right foot tested the darkness before my left foot followed. Stumbling around, I finally found my sole candle and lit it with one of the candles in the hall. Then closing the door behind me, I entered my room and laid myself out on the bed.

"Resting," Kabuto-sama had always called it. He was right on the name. Eyes never closing, breathing never growing even, sleep fading away from my desires. I hated the dark. I could rarely sleep in the dark. I could only rest in the dark.

Soon Kabuto-sama would come to lock the door before I could escape—though I would never try an escape. I would only get hurt when I was caught. What use was escape when I didn't even know where the front door was? The way out? I knew the way around inside the walls, but Orochimaru-sama had set it up so that I would never know the way out.

And even if I did try to leave, I would stumble into one of the many traps, finally found after I had already injured myself. I could never try to escape without a guarantee of safety or someone to lead me.

Disobeying was dangerous.

-Splasher-


	2. Chapter 2

_Author's Notes_: So I finished the third chapter yesterday, and it turns out that it will be twenty-three pages. Whoops. Well, I guess I really wasn't kidding when I said the chapters could range from five to twenty pages. But anyway, this chapter's kind of dumb. It's just to introduce the reader to a strange person in Akiko's past. The third chapter is where it gets better, really.

Oh, and sorry I didn't update on Friday . . . I sort of forgot. Strange because I was so excited to update on Friday, too. But when Friday came I totally forgot. Anyway, enjoy chapter two, for I have yet to finish editing chapter three . . .

_Disclaimer_: I do not own Kishimoto's characters, but I do own my original character Akiko and this specific plot.

_Japanese Words_:  
_-Chan_: An informal title, usually given to a female child_  
-Sama_: A very formal title given to a person with much higher rank than oneself  
Dewa mata ashite: See you tomorrow.  
_Gomen nasai_: I am sorry.  
_Hai_: Yes! (usually said after a command has been given)  
_Iie_: No.

_**Warning: **_**The following chapter contains implied references to terms, not suitable for those under the age of thirteen.**

* * *

The Candle Light

_Nighttime_

I was so tired, yet I couldn't sleep. The darkness forced each breath out of me, suffocated me until I had no space in my lungs. Somehow I could tell when the sun had set. The walls of Otagakure seemed darker. The candles lost their ability to illuminate. I was unable to breathe.

Night. The time I disliked most out of all other times. Memories accompanied the night, and the memories were also suffocating, also dark.

Each minute lasted an hour, the sand falling through the never-ending hourglass. Drop by drop, all in my head.

Suddenly I could hear Kabuto-sama's footsteps grow closer, and my already nonexistent breath caught in my lungs. Would he open the door, check on me, see if I was still there? Or would he simply lock me in, leaving me alone until dawn?

If he came in . . . My memories would surface while he added new ones to the collection of those horrid nights.

Click.

I knew the door had been locked, and Kabuto-sama's retreating footsteps allowed my breath to be released. I was saved for the night, saved from reality's nightmares.

A few things I had learned from living in Otogakure, ones that Kabuto-sama had taught me all too well. Do not lean over in front of a man, no matter your age; they tend to see too much potential, even after you stand up. Do not speak with any bit of a flirting voice; they tend to take anything the wrong way. And do _not_ resist once you've failed everything else; they tend to hurt you when you fight back.

That was just the way things were.

Orochimaru-sama was worse than even Kabuto-sama though. I knew how old the man who resembled a serpent was and how his age compared to mine. _Pedophile_, some would call him. The older man, hunting the younger child. And I was, in fact, a younger child. At least, he had not used me as much as Kabuto-sama.

Just thinking such thoughts pushed memories deep from their caverns underground in my mind. Times from a month ago, or a year ago. Sometimes just the day before. I had been lucky this night, but rarely was I so fortunate.

One of my most distinct memory had occurred three years before. The day I discovered Orochimaru-sama's true character.

_The night had come, and I knew because I had awareness of it passing over me. Like a rain cloud, hovering over me, blocking the sun, as I had heard. The dark emptiness suffocated me just as it had every night._

_My candle flickered in the deep silence._

_I had grown to hate the nights. The only thing that could give me sleep was my imagination, and even that was disappearing as I grew older. The moon . . . I had heard people speak of a circle so bright and so large in the night's sky, lighting even the darkest of things._

_My candle still flickered in the deep silence._

_I had asked where this light had come from because I knew the moon bore no such magic as the sun. And they told me, "Silly girl. The moon reflects the sun's light onto the earth. It borrows the sun's 'magic,' as you call it." I had compared the moon to a mirror reflecting my candle's light. But that light was too dark to compare to something as wonderful as the sun._

_My candle stopped flickering in the darkness. It had lost its flame. Not that it made such a difference because its light already held no glow._

_Kabuto-sama's footsteps approached, and the door opened. Apparently my luck had run out._

"_Akiko-chan, where is your candle?" he asked, the smirk in his voice._

_I trembled, pulling my only blanket closer, hiding my revealing clothes he had chosen for me long ago. "It blew out."_

_He did not seem to care for an answer, for he already began changing the subject. "Come with me. Orochimaru-sama would like to see you tonight."_

_Orochimaru . . . I had met him once, and he had seemed kind enough to me, not even close to how I had learned Kabuto-sama to be—lustful and harsh. But I was soon to discover that looks could be deceiving. _

_However, I followed him without hesitation, and soon he led me straight to Orochimaru's room. He knocked once before leaving me to stand there on my own. Before he left, I heard him say, "Have fun."_

_With no idea what he had meant, I turned as the door opened, only to reveal Orochimaru's smiling face. He invited me in immediately, and I stood awaiting his words._

_There were no words. Only a startling feeling when he pushed me to the wall._

_Then stillness. For a moment neither of us moved; neither spoke a word. Until he had finished scrutinizing my entire body._

"_How old are you, Akiko-chan?" he asked, still smiling._

_Shyly smiling back, I pretended not to be afraid. "I'm five."_

_His tongue slithered out of his mouth, long and snake-like. He was still smiling. After a few minutes of more, I realized Orochimaru's intentions were not so kind after all. His smile never faded. And after he was through with me, I returned to Kabuto-sama, who brought me to his room as well. Then I waited for him to be done with me for the night; he was only finished three hours later when a knock came on the door._

_He flung me aside and covered my entire body, including my face, with blankets as he rose to greet his guest. I could only hear the voices._

"_Yakushi-san, I have captured the one Orochimaru-sama wanted," a hesitant voice explained. "I was told to bring him to you."_

"_Well done." Kabuto-sama's voice seemed pleased enough, just how it did whenever something went his way._

_I could also hear struggling coming from the conversation. "Let me go, you assholes! Let me go!" I assumed that was the captive's voice, screaming for release, escape._

_Snap. I heard the sound clearly, clearer than the scream of pain that followed closely. And then _I_ screamed, disgusted at what had happened, for I, involved in Kabuto-sama's experiments, knew the sound of a bone breaking better than anyone else._

"_Be careful not to hurt the boy too much," Kabuto-sama had spoken over the top of the prisoner's scream and my scream. "I'm nervous about having Akiko-chan patch him up. She's only five."_

_A pause._

"_Leave him here, will you?" Kabuto-sama continued. "Akiko-chan can put him in a cell later."_

_Retreating footsteps filled the empty silence before Kabuto-sama lifted the blankets, grabbed my arm, and threw my clothes at me. "Put those back on."_

"_Hai, Kabuto-sama." With my ability to see returned, I could finally examine the prisoner, relieved when I found him not to be glancing in the direction of my revealed body but rather glaring at Kabuto-sama. The prisoner _was_ just a boy; he appeared a few years older than I._

_After my clothes were on, Kabuto-sama ordered me to heal him to the best of my abilities and then place him in an empty cell. Then he left._

_I was cautious, at first. Even though the prisoner was tied up with rope and was unable to use Chakra due to the seals, I was afraid he could hurt me. Kabuto-sama had been right; I was only five._

_The captive stared back at me curiously as if he was hoping I would give him freedom. Finally he said humorously, "Get over here and heal me, will ya? I hurt all over."_

"_Gomen nasai." How rude of me to let him remain injured! As long as I was helping him, of course, he wouldn't hurt me._

_Illuminating my hand to a soft green, I approached him quickly and healed him wherever he needed. I didn't say much to him, but occasionally answered his questions while listening to him as he babbled on about things._

_So long . . . So long since I actually _talked_ to somebody. I was glad._

_But then when I had fixed everything completely, he told me the strangest words, a few of the last words of the day, I had ever heard any prisoner say. "I assume you'll do anything in your power to keep me from escaping, right?"_

_My face paled dramatically after his words. I would stand no chance against him if he freed himself from the rope or the Chakra seals._

"_I was just joking! I wouldn't want to get you in trouble with that nasty Kabuto," he finished, and said nothing more. _

_I nodded absentmindedly and took him to an empty cell. He did not resist the entire time. But when I shut and locked the chamber door behind him, I could see my betrayal, reflected in his eyes. I knew he had believed that I would free him, even at great cost to my own well being. He had been wrong, and I could never have been more sorry._

_There was no line dividing night and morning that day. No time where I would open my eyes from a slumber to know morning had arrived._

_What was slumber when it was a nightmare? A very real nightmare?_

That year was when I discovered no one in Otogakure was my friend. No one.

No one . . .

And in remembering, I had finally found a sleep, full of dreams—happy dreams actually. The few times I did sleep were the few times I could actually smile. I had heard my dreams were very real compared to most other people's dreams. Maybe the reason was that I was a child, one who was aware of all things before growing older and finding less and less senses in their imaginations.

In my sleep, I could see, I could hear, I could smell, I could touch. A year ago I could taste, but that had gradually faded away.

I imagined the sun in my dreams, beautiful, large—warming my face, my smile. When it sank halfway below the mountains, I would tell it, "Dewa mata ashite," a fitting goodbye to say. Then I would greet the moon, the purest, white ball I had ever seen, especially when surrounded by the black sky—at least, so I imagined it to be.

Yet then I would awake to serve Kabuto-sama and only hope to see my dreams again at night.

This morning was no different. I awoke at the usual time and waited for my door to be unlocked.

My stomach was growling angrily at me, impatient for a small breakfast. With nothing else to do I sat on my bed, and stared at the door hopefully.

After a while, I knew at least an hour had passed, and still there was no sign of Kabuto-sama. I was very hungry. Thirsty, too. But maybe he had forgotten about me, had lost his use for me to serve him. Perhaps, I was to die from thirst or famine before he realized that he had forgotten to feed his servant, just as one forgot to feed his pet dog or pet fish.

It was easy to forget things.

Eventually I eased down to the floor, resting my head against the bed behind me. I could be patient if I wanted to be. I could face death if it would come. I would not cry even if I needed tears.

I tasted salty water enter my mouth. It did not quench my thirst.

After another few hours, the door finally opened, and Kabuto-sama stood, staring at me. "Gomen nasai, Akiko-chan. Orochimaru-sama needed me, and I was busy."

I said nothing. I was afraid that if I moved at all, I would crumble into dust and blow away. I was so dry.

Kabuto-sama approached and lifted me into my arms. I did not know where he was taking me—hopefully to some type of liquid I could drink—but I sighed in relief.

To be completely honest, I had been lying before when I had thought silence was my only constant. Kabuto-sama was just as constant as any silence could be. Yes, he was frightening, a nighttime monster sent to me after dark. But he was still constant. At least, he always came, no matter what it was he came to do.

Maybe that's why I began crying when he had not arrived to feed me. I felt as though someone had died when no one had. But something _did _die, I finally realized. One of my constants died, withered away, just as the moon waxed and waned each month. I really hoped this constant wouldn't only wane.

I was only eight years old. I needed constants.

Kabuto-sama had brought me to his laboratory, set me down on one of the lab tables, and immediately forced me to sip some water slowly. After the glass was empty, he gave me a simple food—bread—and I ate it gratefully. My throat and stomach were finally satisfied.

"Are you all right now, Akiko-chan?" he asked me without even looking.

"Hai, Kabuto-sama," I answered with a whisper. "Should I begin healing again where I left off yesterday?"

"Iie. I'm too busy."

Before I had a chance to respond, he picked me up again and strolled down the empty, dark halls.

I realized soon that he had been bringing me back to my room. He set me upon my bed, and began walking away. I felt water begin to fill my eyes again. "Please come back," I said quickly, softly.

I never knew if he heard me. But a dipping of his head might have been a nod.

I heard a click, and my door was locked.

One thing was for sure as I laid my head back down on my pillow to rest. Kabuto-sama would only be around to feed me tonight. He would do nothing else.

I was happy. And this was no dream.

-Splasher-


	3. Chapter 3

_Author's Notes_: Here is the dreadfully long chapter (twenty-three pages). I hope you enjoy reading it anyway . . . If you don't want to read the whole thing at once, I split it into three parts which are fairly short. This chapter took _so_ much research for me to feel like I was qualified to write it . . . Jeez, this is the last time I ever write a fan-fiction with Kabuto or Orochimaru in it full time . . . or I hope anyway. I do love human anatomy which is probably why all my fan-fiction ideas have Kabuto in them. -hits self- I'm so lame. Hehe. Enjoy! And thanks for any and all reviews!

_Disclaimer_: I do not own Kishimoto's characters, but I do own my original character Akiko and this specific plot.

_Japanese Words_:  
-Sama: A title given to a person with much higher rank than oneself  
-Chan:An informal title, usually given to a female child  
_Hai_: Yes! (usually said after a command has been given)  
_Gomen nasai_: I am sorry.  
_-San_: A less formal yet still formal version of "-sama"  
_Matte_: Wait.  
_Arigato_: Thank you.  
_-Kun_: An informal title, usually given to a male child  
_Iie_: No.  
_Nani_: What?

* * *

The Candle Light

_Uchiha-sama_

Part 1 – Full of Winter, He Is

I was cold, frozen in the depths of the dark, cuddling against any warmth I could find, heating my hands with the candle that bore no blaze. I was cold.

I had heard of winter when I was five. They had said that snow fell, covering the earth with the purest of whites. I had been amazed that there could have been something whiter than the moon, and they had laughed at me, teased me. They told me about how the snow was cold, how winter destroyed any thought of warmth.

Maybe Otagakure was witnessing winter at the moment. Maybe the snow had caused my loss of heat.

I was cold.

And freezing had brought numbness upon me.

The eight years I had lived without a friend, without a deed of my own free will could have also caused my numbness. I couldn't feel anything, not just the air or the blanket around me but also feelings of grief or of happiness.

I was cold and numb.

I was sure winter had arrived.

Kabuto-sama had hardly come to see me today. He merely brought me food and water (to my great relief), but he had never actually needed me to help with his experiments. Could I have made some great mistake? Did he wish to have me killed before tomorrow for being such a lousy servant?

No. I would not cry. I had already wasted too many tears on silly problems.

Maybe Kabuto-sama was merely very busy.

Suddenly I heard a tap, tap, tap against the solid, stone floor. Tap, tap, tap. And the footsteps ceased in front of my door.

I hopped up, and moved closer to the door while hoping someone would enter. Loneliness had always depressed me, and I longed to see a familiar face.

". . . Akiko-chan's room," I heard Kabuto-sama say from just outside. "You'll see her frequently whenever Orochimaru-sama trains you."

"Why?" demanded a voice I had never heard before. The tone sounded cold . . . and numb. Winter was inside of him.

A chuckle came from Kabuto-sama. "Don't question something like that. Akiko-chan knows basic healing techniques. Be grateful that most of the time she will be the one to heal you, instead of me."

I clenched my eyes shut, locking away the tears. Sent to heal the very same wounds that Orochimaru-sama or Kabuto-sama would inflict on their prisoners, just so the two could hurt them some more. Was I really such an awful tool?

The footsteps continued on, leaving my door behind.

After I had regained my composure, I returned to my bed and thought. That voice I had never heard . . . He was no prisoner. He had acted in-charge and like a leader in front of Kabuto-sama! Why would I soon be sent often to heal someone who was not a prisoner?

The part that had most surprised me was the fact of Orochimaru-sama training the one I had heard. Orochimaru-sama would never waste his time training _anyone_.

My curiosity had peaked rapidly. Who was this boy who sounded quite a few years older than I was? What had made him so significant to Orochimaru-sama? And especially, what had made him act so much more authoritative than Kabuto-sama?

Unless . . . I was suddenly reminded of Kimimaru-sama, one who had also displayed the same rank as the this new person. Orochimaru-sama had also trained Kimimaru to his full potential, and I had been sent to heal his various problems frequently. Soon I discovered that Orochimaru-sama only gave Kimimaru such authority because he wanted to gain a powerful and skilled body.

Orochimaru-sama longed for immortality. And not just immortality but also additional strengths, along with it.

A few days ago, I had heard that the Sound Five had been dispatched to fetch a young Uchiha with great powers. Kimimaru-sama had, of course, been left behind due to several nonfunctioning body parts that neither I nor Kabuto-sama could repair.

Was this Uchiha to become Orochimaru-sama's new "vessel" in a while? I was nearly certain that the Uchiha had been the one I had heard outside my door.

Kimimaru-sama had known what his body would be used for, and he was perfectly fine with that. I only hoped that the newcomer also knew what was in store for him.

More thoughts soon led to more minutes, and those minutes ticked away to hours. I was so lonely. I hardly cared, even if Kabuto-sama decided to bring me to his chamber for the night, for existing as an eight-year-old child required some familiar face around every once in a while.

Yet nobody came.

I was cold and numb. Winter had arrived.

* * *

A sudden opening of the door startled me from sleep. I did not fully recall when my eyes had closed or when I started dreaming exactly, but I was surprised to find myself waking up from my never-known slumber.

"Akiko-chan," Kabuto-sama's voice called out to me. I couldn't see him. Even the shine-less candlelight was blinding my darkened eyes. "Follow me."

I rubbed my eyes to focus. "Hai, Kabuto-sama." I followed him without another word.

My head was throbbing while I walked, pulsing like the steady flow of blood throughout my body. I must have gone to sleep, still sitting, and fell to my bed with a sudden bang. But I masked the pain so that no one who saw me would notice.

"Orochimaru-sama has broken a few of someone's bones during a harsh training exercise, and there are possible other injuries as well," Kabuto-sama broke into my thoughts. "I'm sure you'll be able to repair them."

I bit my lip. "Hai." Healing broken bones was never my strongest suit. Most of the time, I would have to re-break the bone several times before I healed them correctly.

Finally Kabuto-sama stopped in front of one of the many doors, along the wall. "He's in here."

The door opened to a prison cell.

"Orochimaru-sama would like it most if you spoke as little as possible to the patient," Kabuto-sama explained. "Only talk if it will help you heal him. Understood?"

I nodded, and he left immediately after handing me the key to the door. Pausing before I entered the chamber, I wondered whom Orochimaru had injured this time. Since I healed most of his victims, I grew to know a lot about them while they spoke to me.

When I entered the dark room, I left the door open so at least some light would allow me to see. In front of my eyes lay a raven-haired boy, stretched out on the ground, eyes tightly clenched shut. I knelt beside him while cautiously touching his obviously broken arm.

Exhaling sharply, he opened his eyes and glared at me. I realized that he was trying to sit, and I stopped him quickly.

"I'm not sure which of your bones are broken," I told him softly. "You should stay still until I heal them."

The teenager was still glaring, onyx eyes full of hate and pain. "Don't touch me, or I'll kill you."

His voice was full of winter. I realized, at once, that this boy had to be the one I had heard a while ago. "What is your name?" I asked curiously while hoping to ease the mood to a bitter softness.

"Uchiha Sasuke," he answered with little hesitation, his tone still cold and numb. "Go away, and leave me alone."

I bit my lip, the pain, such a reassuring feeling. "Gomen nasai, Uchiha-sama, but my orders are to heal you. And I cannot disobey."

The silence, coming afterwards, the darkness. Suffocating. I remained still, hoping that he would allow me to heal him without resistance. His eyes were as cold as ice.

"Don't call me Uchiha," the boy finally told me. "My name is Uchiha _Sasuke_."

"Hai, Sasuke-san," I answered.

He nodded in approval. "Now go away. I don't wish to be healed."

"Kabuto-sama said—"

"I don't care what Kabuto said. Go away."

I felt tears come to my eyes. He _was_ full of winter; everything about him was full of that coldness, that numbness. Did he not feel the pain of his injuries? He had gasped in pain when I simply touched his dislocated arm. Why did he mask his pain?

"Hai," I whispered, my hands trembling as I stood and moved toward the door. Before I left, I turned back, my own eyes glaring at his. "You're full of winter, Sasuke-san."

His gaze transformed from hate to confusion and back to nothingness in the blink of an eye.

I was about to close the door when he stopped me with one simple word: "Matte."

I froze. Had he changed his mind?

"What do you mean by winter?"

Hesitantly I strolled toward him again, his eyes following me the whole time as he dared me to try healing him. He waited patiently for an answer to his question.

I knelt beside him. "I've heard winter was the time of year when pure drops of snow fall from the sky and liter the earth with white. Except the snow is cold, and it numbs your body to where you can't feel anything."

Sasuke-san frowned. "Why did you say I'm full of winter?"

"Because you sound cold and numb when you speak," I answered truthfully. "Cold and numb."

"What is your name?" he asked after a breath of quiet.

I stifled a smile of relief. His eyes no longer glared. "Akiko," I told him. "It means 'autumn child.'"

"Well, Akiko, I would let you heal me, but I need to grow accustomed to pain," Sasuke-san explained politely. "Otherwise, I won't survive this place much longer."

"Sasuke-san," I began slowly. "Orochimaru-sama has many other ways to build your tolerance of pain, and he'll use them very soon. Right now, you should concentrate on staying as healthy as possible."

His expression did not change to agreement, so I went on. "Besides . . . I'm not very skilled at healing these kinds of injuries. Usually I have to re-break the bones until I get it right. If you wish to grow accustomed to pain, then allow me to heal you."

The dark-haired Uchiha closed his eyes and let his head lay itself on the ground again. He offered no further resistance. His way of displaying his content, I guessed.

My hand illuminated to the same soft green, and I started with his dislocated shoulder. After only a couple seconds, I, of course, made a mistake, even though I wished with all my heart to never harm him.

When I had frozen for fear of re-breaking his arm, he opened his eyes and examined my face. I suddenly felt my cheeks grow wet.

"Gomen nasai," I cried helplessly.

He closed his eyes again. "It's fine, Akiko."

Reluctantly I put my hands on his shoulder and attempted to yank the joint out of place again. My hands were so gentle . . . A minute passed before I was successful, and he was gasping the entire time. He was no longer winter. He was in pain.

Hesitating every step of the way, I began healing his shoulder again. I knew that using Jutsu to force the body to heal faster than it normally did would also be painful, as well, but fortunately Sasuke-san remained relaxed.

Still I screwed up every few seconds while having to start over again and again. When I knew Sasuke-san couldn't bear anymore, I paused. I couldn't continue hurting him like this. I just couldn't . . .

"Akiko, don't hesitate," he said suddenly. "You're so afraid to make a mistake that you can only concentrate on not messing up. Don't hesitate."

So he had transformed from longing for pain to growing sick of it. No, I could not let him bear it any longer. His words made sense to me, and I would follow his advice. My hand illuminated to a soft yet also strong green, and, before too much time had passed, his shoulder was almost healed.

I glanced around his body, searching for awkward positions of his limbs. "Where else do you hurt?"

"The wrist on my other arm. And my left leg." Sasuke-san whispered as if his voice would shatter if it became too loud, just as the snow would melt when the sun grew too burning hot.

I nodded, and began healing his wrist without a second's delay. My new confidence was overwhelming; I knew I would succeed. And yet, only after another moment, I failed.

Sasuke-san winced as I fractured his wrist again. "You're too cocky now. It's good to have confidence but not too much."

I nodded and regained a little of my humility, and, after his wrist was repaired, I felt how healing bones was so simple. I didn't know why I had failed so many times before. When I probed his leg, healing every single aspect of it, I took only seconds, and then it was over.

"Take it easy for the rest of the day," I told him as I stood, "if Orochimaru-sama allows it."

"He won't be back until tomorrow, I'm sure," Sasuke-san explained, and I smiled in relief. "Arigato," he added. "For healing me, I mean."

"One more thing . . ."

He waited for me to speak, his eyes still full of winter. But this winter was different. This winter was full of snow, snow that was neither cold nor numb yet pure and white.

"Please don't tell anyone that I talked to you at all . . ." The tears were surfacing. Why did they come so often? "No one's nice to me when I'm in trouble."

He nodded and spoke no more while awaiting my disappearance.

Footsteps were quickly approaching, and I knew the pace of them well enough. Orochimaru-sama had come. I glanced back toward Sasuke-san, who had told me that Orochimaru-sama would never come for the rest of the day, and he appeared completely blank.

I was only eight years old. And I had heard that younger children were more aware of their surroundings. I saw the slight loss of color appear in Sasuke-san's face. He was scared, and doing everything he could to hide his fear.

Orochimaru-sama appeared in the doorway quickly and scrutinized the nearly pitch-black room. He took all the darkness into his eyes and all the candlelight, as well.

"Oh, Akiko-chan, I didn't expect you to still be here," he spoke, maniacal mirth present in his ever-frightening voice.

I erased all emotion from my face. "Gomen nasai, Orochimaru-sama." I offered no excuse.

He shook his head, not accepting apologies, and ran a hand against my cheek. I shuddered at the nausea that came with it. I erased all emotion from my face.

"Is Sasuke-kun all better?" he asked, toying with my hair.

I erased all emotion from my face. "Hai, Orochimaru-sama. But he should rest for a little."

"Excellent job, Akiko-chan."

Akiko-_chan_. The way he said it made the blood drain from my face, leaving no color or sentiment. It erased all emotion from my face.

"Orochimaru, what do you want?" Sasuke-san demanded quickly. I glanced at him—gratefully when I saw his face. Only I could notice the desire, to distract Orochimaru-sama from me, in his expression.

And the plan was successful. Smirking as he went, Orochimaru-sama strolled away from me and over to the Uchiha, who involuntary drew the slightest bit back.

"Dear, Sasuke-kun," Orochimaru-sama purred lightly. "I was checking on you to make sure you were alright."

He glared, eyes full of the dark winter, once again. "Don't lie to me."

"Clever as always," the Snake Sannin praised. "Actually I came to tell you of the latest training exercise I will be putting you through."

_Hiss_. I recognized the sound instantly. One of Orochimaru-sama's many snakes had finally declared its presence. Reluctantly I glanced toward where the sound came from—Orochimaru-sama's sleeve—and saw the color of the scales, which coiled around his arm.

Purple. Poison.

Years of living in Otogakure taught me to freeze; the reaction was my instinct. If I moved even a finger, the snake would recognize its prey, pouncing from his master's hand and biting my flesh. Kabuto-sama would give me the antidote, which would encumber two days full of extra pain to stop the poison.

But, I thought with a startling realization, Sasuke-san did not have the same instinct. He turned his head to glare.

The snake leapt onto Sasuke's neck as its fangs sunk in deep. I saw the cursed seal mark on his neck, and how the snake bit that particular place. It would only be more painful for him.

A scream.

Did a voice full of that coldness and numbness ever scream? Whenever that dark winter screamed, I knew the cry of pain meant something.

The tears were coming, and I closed my eyes, desperately hoping the snake hadn't noticed my movement. But the snake was already disappearing behind Orochimaru's sleeve again. And I could hear Sasuke-san, moaning and tossing and turning and tossing and moaning.

Warily I opened my eyes and shut them again, once I saw Sasuke-san's face, tightly pulled together in that pain.

"It'll take three days for the poison to kill you." Orochimaru-sama's voice entered my ear with its triumphant and pleased tone. "Hopefully your determination will keep you alive. Otherwise, I have no use for you."

Sasuke-san—the only person I had even a small chance of becoming a friend with—would probably die, fade from everyone's memory, just as Kimimaru-sama, one of the nicest people I had ever met, had disappeared when he had been killed. Except my memories were not so disposable. I would never forget. And so I would cry for Sasuke-san if he did not survive.

I felt Orochimaru-sama's hand, being placed on the top of my head. "Gomen nasai, Akiko-chan. You should not have seen this." His voice did not sound sorry at all.

He pulled my hand, and I followed him toward the door. Dazed. Shocked. I knew fully what feelings the terms described now. Cold and numb. Just like winter.

Before he shut the door, I looked back at Sasuke-san, who glanced at me for a single second. And in that fragment of a second, I saw comfort in his eyes. He told me with his mind that everything would be fine. I believed him.

I was a fool.

And then the door shut in front of my face as Orochimaru brought me down the halls.

"Let's go find Kabuto-sama, shall we? He'll give you some type of sedative so that you may sleep and forget about all of this."

I was speechless. I said not another word.

And sometime between then and now, the Snake Sannin had brought me to Kabuto-sama. He did inject me with a sedative, but I did not care.

I was cold, and I was numb. I was winter.

* * *

Part 2 – Reason to Exist, I Have Found Within Me

My eyes popped open abruptly yet somehow reluctantly. At first, I was confused and disoriented, finding myself strapped down on a lab table. The last place I remembered being present at was Kabuto-sama's lab when Orochimaru-sama brought me there. Then the memories tore into me, bursting through the dam of my skull. Sasuke-san could be dying. Sasuke-san could already be dead.

The medical light above my head was blinding me, distracting my focus. My hands and legs would not move an inch. I was terrified, yet I did not move.

The door opened, and I heard Kabuto-sama stroll lightly inside. He knew I was awake, I could tell.

"Orochimaru-sama was worried about you, Akiko-chan," he told me in an obvious lie. Orochimaru-sama would only pretend to be worried about someone like me. "Are you feeling better?" Kabuto-sama continued.

I nodded, hoping that my own lie would deceit him into letting me off the lab table. "Hai."

"I could erase parts of your memory," Kabuto-sama suggested. "You could forget all of this."

Losing my memory would not erase Sasuke-san's problem. "Iie. I'm fine."

I sensed Kabuto-sama's eyes bore into my own as he scrutinized every emotion on my face and as he registered every movement of my body. I made sure my face was blank and that my body remained still.

"Good, Akiko-chan. I'll let you down from there then." He released the binding on my arms and legs, so I rose to a sitting position while waiting for further instruction.

He began going deeper into the lab after he told me, "The sedative's still wearing off, so you should rest. Go back to your room. I'll be there to lock your door in an hour."

I hesitated, afraid to ask a simple question haunting my mind. "Kabuto-sama . . . How long have I been sleeping?"

I hadn't tricked him at all, not one fragment. He knew why I was asking, why I refused to lose my memory; he knew about the three days before Sasuke-san's possible death. "A little more than two days, Akiko-chan. Go straight to your room with no detours. You better be there when I check."

I nodded, and hopped off the table. But when I was sure he was gone, I took his bag of medical supplies, the one he rarely used except during emergencies. They could come in handy. I reached the dark hallway with no light, only the fake light of the candles. Growing in Otogakure had taught me all the passageways of all the bases, so I was never lost inside of the village.

But at that moment, I couldn't have been more lost. My mind was gone; it was hiding from me. And so was my heart. My entire soul was lost between judgements and decisions, to where I couldn't decide which way my destination was anymore.

My heart was telling me to avoid my room, to disobey Kabuto-sama, yet my mind, my logic, was warning me to head straight to my room with no delay. As a result, I chose an in-between to ease both parts of me.

I was lost.

Finally I stopped and decided to choose which road to take. Realizing suddenly how little punishment for me could mean the face of Sasuke-san's death, I flipped around and headed towards the cell he was being held in. I, at least, needed to see if he was alive.

When I reached the door, I recalled that I no longer had a key to it. But I still knew a way to get in.

"Do you know how to pick a lock?" that young boy had asked three years ago, the same boy who I had met the day I was first sent to Orochimaru's bedroom for half of the night, the same boy who I had led to his cell and came back to him every day to talk to him. I only realized now that I had never learned his name . . . So many things I had never told him or asked him.

I had shaken my head, had stared at him in wonder. I had been five years old and had admired him for his bravery and knowledge of the outside world.

My only friend back then had sighed. "You gotta know how to pick a lock! That's one of the most important things to learn!"

"I'm only five," I had told him, trying to defend myself. "I don't know that much . . ."

He had laughed, a relaxed sound, full of mirth, unlike Orochimaru-sama's laughter. "I guess that's true," he had commented. "But do you have a paperclip or something like that?"

I had nodded. "Only a clip for my hair. Kabuto-sama hates it when my hair covers my eyes."

The boy had held out his hand. "Give it. I'll show you how to pick a lock. I'm sure it'll come in handy some day."

Taking the clip from my hair, I had handed it to him without any reluctance. "Which lock are you going to break through?"

"My cell door of course. Don't worry though; I won't escape. It'd be rude to get you in trouble for being my friend." And he had taught me that day the tool he knew I would need most.

I _had_ needed it most in my life because, before this day, my life hadn't counted. I had been ignorant of everything, obeying everyone who could do me harm. But _this _day, I had broken my first rule for a greater cause.

Picking a lock was the first step toward my disobedience.

Finally succeeding in opening the door, I glanced inside, scared of what I might see. I was right to be scared. Sasuke-san was slumped in a corner, and as I grew closer, my eyes widened in terror.

I was very glad I had stolen Kabuto-sama's bag, for I knew at that very moment I would definitely need it. Sasuke-san's eyes were shut, yet I could see dry tears covering the corners. His lips were pressed in a thin line as if fighting against extreme pain.

But that was not what worried me most of all. The color in the Uchiha's face was fading . . . He had been pale enough before, but now his face was even whiter, except for a light, sick shade of green. The poison was winning him over.

Occasionally I would hear a soft sound that sounded like a dog's whine. With an abrupt thought, I realized the noise was Sasuke-san whimpering. But Sasuke-san was winter! Winter could not cry. Winter could not ever die like this.

"Sasuke-san?" I whispered, my voice full of fear, of worry. If I spoke any louder, he would be gone forever.

He did not move. He knew he could shatter easily, just as I knew. Or maybe I was wrong, and he was simply asleep.

I didn't mind whether he was listening; I just needed to talk to him. Just in case somebody would walk by, I closed the door to the cell. Then I moved back to Sasuke-san urgently, hoping I wasn't too late to save him.

"I'm here, Sasuke-san," I told him while I knelt beside his slumped form. "You were right—everything will be okay." My voice wavered, so I cleared my throat. "Please just stay alive, long enough for me to fix this . . ."

My hands shook as I reached into the stolen bag and retrieved the antidote, which so "conveniently" happened to be placed inside.

Orochimaru-sama was wrong. Despite anyone's determination, no one could possibly escape the poison of that purple snake. Kabuto-sama had warned me about that once. He had told me to always come to him immediately for the antidote or else I would die. He also had said there was still a possibility of death if the antidote came too late. The poison could still beat the antidote to the heart.

Because of the travel of blood . . .

After I made sure the antidote was fully injected, I reached into the bag again and retrieved the blood samples, carried in refrigerated bags. Only then did I realize that I had never known Sasuke-san's blood type.

I had no other choice. "Sasuke-san! Sasuke-san, wake up!" My hands shook his body frantically, and I only hoped he still had the strength to move. "Please . . ."

His eyes did not open, but I heard him groan, "What do you want?"

He had heard me! "You're blood type. I need to know."

"Na . . . ni?"

"Blood type, Sasuke-san, your blood type." I was urgent. Every second I wasted, more of his blood was being infected with poison.

His face finally cleared, and I knew he understood the question. "AB."

Immediately I reached the AB blood samples, carefully pricked his vein, and injected them into Sasuke-san's body. He would need the extra, unaffected blood. It could save precious time for the antidote to spread throughout his body.

"Akiko?" Sasuke-san's voice was low and rusty due to the lack of decent food or water. "Is that you?"

I nodded before realizing his eyes were closed and he couldn't see me. "Hai, Sasuke-san." I reached into the bag and retrieved a bit of water. He never moved, even when I asked him politely, and so I forced his mouth open and made him swallow the few drops of water I supplied.

"If the poison doesn't kill you," I explained, "the lack of water will. I'm leaving this canteen here. Be sure to drink it all before Orochimaru-sama comes back. Then hide the canteen somewhere. It's dark enough, no one will see it." I put the canteen in his hand and closed his fingers around it.

He clasped it tightly, never letting go. I knew he would drink every single drop of water he could get. His lips were so dry.

I ripped off part of my shirt and used another canteen to wet the cloth with water. He was too weak to protest when I began wiping the dried tears from his eyes. Soon I was finished doing everything in my power to save him, and I felt slightly relieved when I saw the shade of green begin to disappear. At least, he would live. I was positive he would.

"Don't tell anyone I was here please," I began after making sure he would listen. "I would be punished if you did."

With that I stood up, and paced toward the cell door.

Sasuke-san stopped me when he shifted as though he wanted me to stay. His voice was still as dry as the opposite of winter. "Akiko, why don't . . . you escape? Have you . . . ever even . . . thought about it?"

I froze in my tracks. His question had hit me by surprise; I had never known the words were formed, and yet suddenly they were thrust at me without warning. It was strange he would ask an irrelevant question like that to me anyway . . . Maybe he still thought he was dying and wished to get every last word in.

"Iie," I answered, hoping he would relax again, "I've never thought of escape."

And I left him in the cell afterwards, worried if I stayed any longer that Orochimaru-sama would come to see if his "vessel" had survived the disgusting trial.

Before I went to my room, I dropped the bag off at Kabuto-sama's lab. He was not there, which meant . . .

I ran, I ran full speed toward my room, I ran even as my legs protested exhaustion! I felt nothing except urgency. Would I make it in time? I was sure it was almost an hour, and Kabuto-sama was on his way to check on me.

Fortunately Otogakure was filled with many pathways. If luck was on my side, I would not run into Kabuto-sama in the hallways. I reached my room in only two minutes, and burst inside while shutting the door behind me.

I _had_ made it in time, for, as soon as I sat on the bed, Kabuto-sama's footsteps echoed against the wall. The door opened only second's after, and he examined me, head to foot, taking everything in.

"You seem out of breath, Akiko-chan," he told me, smirking suspiciously.

I had only barely noticed my heavy panting. "Nightmare . . ." I breathed while increasing my heavy inhaling. I hoped he would believe the lie.

Kabuto-sama chuckled, hardly even caring about my supposed distress. "What about, out of curiosity?"

I knew his game and how he played it, so I was careful to destroy any amount of anger on my face. He knew I would not have an immediate summary of my "dream" if I were lying. But I was only eight years old; I was quick. "Sasu—I mean, Uchiha-sama—was dying, and I was trying to save him. It was so hard . . ."

It was easier to tell the truth than to tell a lie. I told the truth. But everyone's perspective of what the truth meant could change due to the information he or she was given. Perhaps, I had not fooled Kabuto-sama, but I had partially set his mind at ease.

"Are you certain you don't want your memory cleaned?"

"Hai, Kabuto-sama."

He nodded and left.

Click.

My door, my only ticket of freedom, was locked. There was no way I could pick the lock from the inside of the room. The design wasn't meant for a simple trick like that.

The strangest occurrences happened in the next few moments. My body began shaking uncontrollably, and I found myself gasping for breath. I could neither inhale nor exhale because my lungs refused to take in the air. I gasped. I couldn't stop gasping.

My sight grew blurry, as well, and I couldn't see even the darkness of the candle light in front of my eyes.

What was happening? I had heard rumors of victims who experienced horrible crimes went through trauma. Trauma, a state in which one's mind protected him with shock which would eventually wear off.

Suddenly my mind started trembling as rapidly as my body, and I had no time to wonder about my condition. I sank to the ground, banging my hand on the cold, hard floor until I was too numb to do so any further.

"Sasuke-san . . ." my voice moaned, words exiting my mouth without warning. I rubbed the tears from my eyes. He had been in so much pain . . .

Before, my tears had shared no part of me. They had possessed a separate mind all to themselves, which had nothing to do with my own mind. The drops of water had fell when I hadn't commanded them to, and I hadn't noticed until I felt a stingy wetness on my cheeks or in my mouth.

But _now_, I felt my body shake with every teardrop. I wasn't crying against my own free will. I was sobbing.

Why had I never even given a thought about escape or disobedience? Because I was afraid of someone getting hurt due to my mistakes.

Kabuto-sama was very rough while healing patients, yet I was soft and gentle. If I could even make the smallest difference through staying at Otogakure, even if it was simply to offer less pain when healing the victims than Kabuto-sama would offer when I was absent, then I would stay forever.

Sasuke-san . . . He could have died because I could have _refused_ to break the rules.

Thanks to him, I had realized the errors of my ways. I would still do anything in my power to prevent pain to other people, even if that goal required my disobedience.

I was no longer winter, cold and numb. And _my_ tears—not my body's tears—stopped flowing down my face.

I had a reason to exist. To protect others from winter and tears.

I was only eight years old, though I felt I had grown a lifetime. Only the experience of living was missing.

* * *

Part 3 – The Sin's Grasp Will Never Be Undone

"Akiko, wake up," I heard Kabuto-sama's stern voice command. Then I felt him shaking me from my silent sleep.

I hadn't known I was asleep before. I hadn't even dreamed at all.

The shaking grew harsher. "Akiko," he repeated, "wake up."

My eyelids found their way out of my sight, and I found myself lying limply on the floor. When had I fallen asleep? Had my eyes closed when I had ceased crying?

"Hai, Kabuto-sama," I answered drowsily before standing. "Gomen nasai."

His eyes held no tint of emotion, except for the great urgency I could hear pounding in his heart. "Come quickly, Akiko-chan. An accident has happened."

My eyes widened in terror. Kabuto-sama _never_ sounded so worried about a prisoner. The "accident" must have happened to . . . Sasuke-san.

I followed him immediately toward his lab, longing to run as fast as my legs would carry me, but Kabuto-sama would only pace quickly, never changing to even a jog. He was too arrogant to run for anyone of lower status than he. Anger seethed inside of me without warning, and I blew deep breaths to regain my calm.

Finally the lab was in sight, and I rushed in, shocked at what I saw. Sasuke-san was laid out on the table, and he was desperately holding back screams of pain, turning them into feeble yelps. I was shocked at the sound because he had not a scratch on him, except on his thigh where there was a deep cut, no doubt from a Kunai. He appeared fine elsewhere, except for the slightly pale color, which had always tinted his skin before.

Kabuto-sama ushered me over to Sasuke-san's body, which was strapped down due to his ferocious struggling.

"What h-happened?" I stuttered nervously.

Kabuto-sama had already taken the scalpel, and slowly began cutting open the injured skin on Sasuke-san's left thigh. "An artery in his leg had been wounded. He's internally bleeding," Kabuto-sama explained. "He hasn't got much time left."

I glanced dubiously at Sasuke-san's pained face. Internal bleeding didn't cause this much pain. Definitely huge coughing fits and fatality but not too much of anything else. Something else had happened, something Kabuto-sama hadn't told me.

"Don't just stand there, Akiko," Kabuto-sama scolded. "Put some gloves on, and grab the sutures."

I hesitated before grabbing the sutures from the desk, setting them down next to Kabuto-sama, and then pulling on the medical gloves. "What about a sedative?"

"Iie. Just help me find the common femoral artery. The iliopsoas muscle is getting in the way. We don't have time to do this safely."

No sedative? What was Kabuto-sama trying to accomplish? I obediently rushed over, pulling back the layers of muscles. Sasuke-san would definitely be sore when this was over.

"There's the artery," Kabuto-sama commented.

I nodded. "I see the wound . . ." My hand could feel the drainage of blood. Sasuke-san was dying again, and it had only been a few hours since he had been saved from the last problem.

"Make sure the muscle isn't damaged too badly while I repair the wound," he commanded, and began using the sutures placed behind him.

I did as I was told before hearing choking noises in Sasuke-san's direction. "He's not breathing properly," I gasped, awaiting Kabuto-sama's command.

"He won't be breathing at all if I don't stop the bleeding," Kabuto-sama reminded.

I shook my head. "No! He's not breathing at all right _now_!" I exclaimed, and removed my hands from the surely torn muscle in Sasuke-san's leg. I shifted over to be closer to his head, and grabbed the respirator.

"You have to breathe, Sasuke-san," I told him quietly as I placed the respirator over his nose and mouth. "Keep breathing."

Kabuto-sama finished repairing the injured artery. "Grab a cloth to stop the blood. I'm not stitching the skin up right now."

Suddenly the machine Sasuke-san was hooked up to began making tiny beeps rapidly, my own heart pounding along with it. I couldn't think; I could only act as quickly as possible.

"Heart attack," Kabuto-sama said. "He's lost too much blood. He'll need transfusions."

A pause.

"Shit, I don't know his blood type," he remembered aloud. "We'll have to make a guess . . ."

"AB."

"What?"

My hands trembled. "His blood type is AB."

Kabuto-sama's eyes darkened, and I understood I was in trouble. But it didn't matter now. I rushed to go get the AB blood transfusions from his bag, only recalling that I had already used them when I saved Sasuke-san's life before. There were none left.

My face flushing a deep red, I returned to Kabuto-sama.

I knew he was not happy.

The heart rate on the machine was still rapidly increasing. Kabuto-sama glanced at the readings before taking off his medical gloves and almost leaving the room.

I stopped him before he could give up. "My blood type is AB," I reminded him.

He shrugged. "You're only eight years old. It would probably kill both of you." Then he was gone, most likely, searching for a prisoner with the blood type AB.

And I was utterly alone. There was no time to search for someone else. I was Sasuke's only chance. I had seen Kabuto-sama perform surgeries or experiments similar to this before, but I had never actually done one alone. But here, I had no choice, for my ability to transfer some of my blood to Sasuke-san's blood was the most important thing in the word right now.

There was no time to think or worry. Somehow at the time I needed it the most, the information surfaced, reminding me of all of those blood transfusions Kabuto-sama had completed in the past. As a child, I had watched closely, examining the way he transferred blood from one person to another. The only problem was that I would have to transfuse my _own_ blood into Sasuke-san's body without any supervision.

After a few moments (the heartbeat had died only seconds after), I could transfer my blood to Sasuke-san successfully. When I felt dizzy, I immediately ceased the transfusion, and I shocked his heart with the defibrillator.

Once.

Nothing.

Twice.

Nothing . . . I was failing. Sasuke-san would die, and it would be completely my fault.

Three times.

The beeping on the machine began again, unsteady. Yet still there the heartbeat had began again, relieving me of stress and grief.

Four times.

The heartbeat returned to a normal rate. He would survive, would narrowly escape death, once again. I took the sutures from where Kabuto-sama had left them on the table, and stitched up Sasuke-san's open wound on his thigh. I didn't think my body could loose much more blood before I fainted, so I needed to close his injury fast before he needed more transfusions.

Remembering the recent, hasty minutes, I noted that I had only seen Kabuto-sama stressed like that three times in my life. One had happened back when I was five, and he had lost the antidote to the poison of that purple snake—the time I had been bitten by its fangs. The second time involved Kimimaru in a similar situation to Sasuke-san's. And the third was occurring right now.

He tended to take his frustration out on me during those times of stress, and I didn't blame him. I would have willingly taken it out on myself as well if I hadn't always been so calm.

Sitting down, I decided to await Kabuto-sama's return. Soon I laid myself down instead, my head feeling dizzy from the disturbance of my blood. Luckily I felt mostly better right when Kabuto-sama, who was surprised to see Sasuke-san alive and stable, arrived with new refrigerated packs of blood.

"I thought I told you not to use your own blood," he reminded angrily.

I shook my head. "Gomen nasai. I had to save him." Silence occurred for a moment. "At least, he lived."

Kabuto-sama stalked over, and pulled me up by a lock of my hair. I winced, driving the tears of pain back down.

"What has gotten into you?" he demanded, still angry. "Never disobey me again. _Never_."

"Hai, Kabuto-sama," I lied.

He released my hair, believing my false words, and I fell back to the floor, cowering in a corner. Then Kabuto-sama checked Sasuke-san's condition, his face growing relieved when he realized the Uchiha really would live. Orochimaru-sama would have been very angry if his apprentice had died.

I reluctantly decided to ask the question, which was haunting my mind. "Why is he in pain? Internal bleeding wouldn't cause someone like Uchiha-sama to scream."

Sliding his glasses up his nose with a finger, Kabuto-sama glanced absent-mindedly at me. "He'll be fine for now."

He made no move to give Sasuke-san a sedative though. When he awoke, he would . . . Somehow I longed for his voice full of winter again. "Iie, he'll be in pain," I argued.

"For your own good, be quiet, Akiko," Kabuto-sama ordered, warning me in his own little way. A smirk was still plastered on his face. "Orochimaru-sama won't allow any sedatives to be used on him. Do you understand?"

I nodded. "Hai, Kabuto-sama."

Kabuto-sama lifted me from where I sat silently in the corner, and he put me on an adjacent lab table to monitor my condition. After he was sure that I would be fine, despite the loss of blood, he left to work on something else.

Sasuke-san would wake up soon when the effects of all the chaos had worn off. At one point, Kabuto-sama removed the respirator from Sasuke-san's face, telling me something about how he didn't need it anymore.

I was still waiting.

Finally Kabuto-sama strolled back over to Sasuke-san's body, and I rose, knowing he was about to perform some operation.

"Akiko-chan, give him a stimulant," he commanded.

I hesitated. A stimulant, the exact opposite of a sedative, would keep Sasuke-san awake. What kind of twisted logic were Orochimaru-sama and Kabuto-sama operating on? But, perhaps, I was completely wrong on Kabuto-sama's motives, and giving him a stimulant would help the Uchiha.

So I obeyed blindly.

After a few moments, Sasuke-san's eyes opened. He had seen Kabuto-sama and immediately began hiding his pain. But I knew whatever had happened was hurting him badly.

"His Chakra channels are tangled, but his body is still trying to use Chakra. It's a mess," Kabuto-sama told me, ignoring Sasuke-san's glares. "Orochimaru-sama wants me to repair them—without any Jutsu."

I suppressed a gasp before glancing at Sasuke-san. He had heard Kabuto-sama's explanation just as clearly as I had, and he understood what was about to happen. His eyes widened in terror, but he tried to mask his fear quickly.

"What's going on?" Sasuke-san demanded angrily.

"Oh, don't worry, Sasuke-kun. We'll have you all better in no time," the medical ninja answered, his voice slightly coaxing.

The next few hours were torture, not just for Sasuke-san but also for me. I couldn't stand hearing him holding back screams and yelps. It only showed how strong he pretended he was, but, when faced with the evil methods of Kabuto-sama or Orochimaru-sama used, no one, not even the proclaimed Uchiha, could remain so impassive.

Kabuto-sama stifled a sigh of annoyance. "Give him an extra dose of that stimulant, Akiko-chan," he ordered. "He keeps falling asleep."

I wiped the tears away from my eyes, only to succeed staining my skin with the color of Sasuke-san's blood. My plastic gloves were covered in red. "Hai, Kabuto-sama," I whispered, my voice cracking. I did as I was told, even as my heart rebelled constantly against my actions.

More hours stretched on, filled with injustice, and I had no way to stop the wrongdoings. I felt all my feelings dissolve. I was a robot now, used only to fulfill Kabuto-sama's sick desires. Eventually I grabbed a washcloth and began cleaning Sasuke-san's face, which was sweaty due to stress and was wet from the tears he couldn't hold back.

I didn't think he even noticed me trying to help him, but it didn't matter. Even if I could aid him a little, I would definitely try.

"Sasuke-kun doesn't need that," Kabuto-sama scolded, taking the washcloth from my hands moments after I had started.

I nodded in agreement. "Of course, not. He needs a sedative," I mumbled to myself.

He heard me, I knew, because, when he turned to me and clutched my throat, I could feel the anger pulsing out of his hand. He was still smirking though.

I couldn't breath. I exhaled in shock, only regretting my reaction when I could no longer inhale the air I had let out. "K-Kabuto-sama . . ." I gasped, my hands moving on my own to try to stop his.

"Remember back when you were only four years old?" he questioned me, the smirk spreading throughout his voice. "When Orochimaru-sama was in charge of you?"

"H-hai." I managed to get the sound out, releasing more of my precious air.

Kabuto-sama's smirk grew even wider. "He was going to use you in his experiments, as well. He likes creating new and forbidden Jutsu, and, when you grew to be eight, you would have been the perfect body for him to complete his data with no remaining holes." He paused to allow the information to sink in. "But instead, he gave you away as a gift for me because I was so loyal to him. You are eight years old right now, aren't you?" he asked rhetorically. "I could return you to him at any moment if you continue this rebellious stage of yours."

I listened as carefully as I could the entire time, even with my restricted air supply.

"But I won't need to return you to him, will I?"

I struggled to shake my head. "Iie . . ."

"Good." His hands released my throat, and I fell to my knees while gasping for air.

The abrupt amount of oxygen I could inhale surprised my lungs as they caused me to choke and cough. Kabuto-sama ignored my wheezing, and he continued to work on Sasuke-san's Chakra channels.

"He's starting to fall asleep again," Kabuto-sama noted. "Give him another stimulant."

I remained kneeling on the ground, still coughing.

"Now, Akiko-chan."

"Hai!" I struggled to stand, and I grabbed the stimulant before returning to Sasuke-san. His eyes were closed, but I could tell he was awake. His breathing was in uneven gasps and pants. The extra doses would definitely not be safe for Sasuke-san's currently fragile body.

But disobeying was growing more and more dangerous. I couldn't afford it anymore, or I would soon be dead, or tortured _until_ I was dead.

"Gomen nasai," I apologized before injecting the stimulant.

Kabuto-sama waited until Sasuke-san's eyes opened, and the withheld screams of pain began again. Then he told me to leave and return to my room; he knew he could handle it from there, and he also knew. I shuddered at the piercing sounds of Sasuke-san when they echoed in my mind. I felt as if I were being strangled all over again, strangled by the noise of the sin I had committed. Drowning in my own injustice.

As I walked quickly down the halls, leaving the lab behind, my body and mind began shaking at once again. My breathing began shaking as well, and tears started pouring out.

I wasn't crying. I was sobbing. Sasuke-san was in pain, and it was entirely my fault.

My sobbing only increased.

-Splasher-

* * *

_Author's Note_: Oh yeah, I feel as if my pacing is off . . . If anyone has helpful advice on how to fix that specifically, please review and tell me! Criticism is appreciated! Thanks!


	4. Chapter 4

_Author's Notes_: Only eleven pages! I'm so happy! I mean, compared to about twenty-three where I was ready to die, eleven pages was paradise! No more twenty-paged chapters for me . . . Well, I say that, and chapter five is about fifteen pages. -- But anyway this is the fourth chapter out of eight, so keep reading! I hope you like it! And please, please, please review, especially if you have advice and stuff! Even a flame helps! Haha… Enjoy!

_Disclaimer_: I do not own Kishimoto's characters, but I do own my original character Akiko and this specific plot.

_Japanese Words_:  
_Sama_: A title given to a person with much higher rank than oneself  
_Baka_: An impolite and informal title to give someone unlikable  
_Yarou_: An even ruder version of "-baka"  
_Arigato gozaimasu_: Thank you very much.  
_Gomen nasai_: I am sorry.  
_San_: A less formal yet still formal version of "-sama"  
_Kun_: An informal title, usually given to a male child  
_Chan_: An informal title, usually given to a female child  
_Arigato_: Thank you.  
_Hai_: Yes! (usually said after a command has been given)  
_Nani_: What?

* * *

The Candle Light

_Suigetsu-kun_

Part 1 – My Chosen Name of Hope

I found my legs running against my own free will as tears streamed down my face. I was sick of Otogakure! I was sick of everything about Kabuto-sama and Orochimaru-sama! I couldn't live here anymore—at any cost.

My feet had taken me to a strange room, I had never seen before. Yet somehow I could feel Kabuto-sama's presence all over. These types of rooms were everywhere; Kabuto-sama tended to hide his experiments in the least noticeable chambers, the ones I had never even heard of.

My stingy eyes scanned the room, and they fell upon a secret doorway, disguised by the wall. Only an eight-year-old's observant eyes would notice the small, hidden creases, hidden cleverly by the paintings. Curiously I entered the secret room, but after closing the door behind me I fell to the ground, sobbing as I never had before.

I had experienced enough of sins.

When I finally glanced upwards again, I saw a nearly empty tank, merely filled with water, which reminded me of the sickly experiment tanks, used to create an aquatic army only recently. But there was no person inside of this tank, which could mean only one thing. The experiment who had once inhabited this tank was dead.

I had never been angrier. Never, in my entire eight years of living. I could have killed Kabuto-sama then for being so careless of a human life—a life which fascinated him to no end!

My legs carried me up to the tank of water, and my hands began banging upon it full power. I would never stop until it was broken, never stop until I had rid the planet of this sin, this injustice. My hands grew raw and numb from my failed attempts to break the strong glass, but I would never give up.

"Hey, no offense, but most of the chemicals keeping me alive depend on this tank remaining intact," an unknown yet familiar voice said suddenly, "and I'd really rather stay alive."

My hand froze in the middle of a punch, and my eyes scanned the secret chamber, unable to find the source of the voice. Until my mind actually registered the meaning of his words.

The tank was not empty. A human was still in there. I had never seen a type of experiment meant to completely mask a human body underwater, an experiment to even _transform_ the body into water. Or were my ears fooling me?

"You're in the water?" I asked curiously, hoping I would not embarrass myself with a childish guess.

The voice chuckled. "Yep. You're the first one to actually guess."

His voice held some type of familiarity, but I could not place my finger on it. I knew I had heard this voice before, this speech pattern of his. "The first one?" I asked.

"Yeah. There's been a few who stumbled on this room . . ." he answered humorously yet somehow sadly. "They never stayed for long."

"Oh." I couldn't say I was surprised. Sometimes the few villagers of Otogakure would explore, and come across experiments such as these. Mostly they were frightened of the oddities, and never stopped to wonder about the injustice going on.

I hesitated before asking my next question, afraid of scaring him away, but suddenly I realized he would only be afraid of scaring _me_ away. "I feel like I've met you before. Your voice is . . . so familiar."

After another moment I realized I had been right to hesitate. He had isolated himself at my words. "Maybe we have met," he finally said, but I knew he wasn't telling the full truth. "Your voice sounds familiar, too. I can't really tell behind this glass though."

Noting that I would probably be staying there for at least a little while, I sat down on the ground to let him know I wasn't about to leave.

His presence felt happy again, glad to forget the recent question I had asked him. "You were crying before," the voice reminded bluntly. "And you seemed more than a little angry. What's wrong?"

I frowned at my feet sadly, still upset over Kabuto-sama torturing Sasuke-san. "I am just a little confused, I guess. Kabuto-sama is so . . . wrong, and I can't . . ." I paused, the tears returning to my eyes. "I can't . . . I don't know."

"Hey, don't cry again," the voice comforted. "You're too little to cry. Cheer up!"

For some reason, the words of comfort only worsened my grief. "I don't ever want to see him again! But if I hide, I know he'll find me, and it will only make things worse! I can't . . . I can't escape!"

The voice's laughter suddenly boomed, and I glared at the tank sharply. Why was he laughing? Did he think my tears were funny?

"Oh, I'm sure you have a much better chance of escaping than _I_ do," he commented. I immediately realized his laughter was not a sign of joy or teasing but of loneliness and grief.

Again the sense of familiarity arose, but I pushed it back down. I would not hurt his feelings again. "I guess that's true. But you don't understand. If I leave, then the prisoners here will be tortured more by Kabuto-sama's rough ways of healing. I can't let that happen."

He seemed to understand because he changed the subject. "Hey, what's with that 'Kabuto-sama' thing? If you hate him so much, then call him 'Kabuto' or even 'Kabuto-baka, Kabuto-yarou,'" he told me. "Don't call him 'Kabuto-sama' 'cause that's just silly."

The words had sparked a fire inside of me. He was right. Just why did I call him Kabuto-sama? Even in my head! Maybe the habit had grown while I was blind, while I was young. But it was no longer a habit. I would now call him Kabuto without any title. And I would never call him anything else unless I was speaking directly to him.

The same would go for Orochimaru as well, for he was just as wrong as Kabuto. He deserved the same treatment.

"Arigato gozaimasu," I told him gratefully.

He laughed again. "Thanks for what? I was just telling the truth." I could hear the smile in his voice.

Speaking of giving people the wrong names, my curiosity began to wonder what _his_ name was. But I had found that prisoners rarely told me their names because they saw me as some traitor, some freak of nature who would use their names against them. I would not make the same mistake with this person. "What should I call you?" I asked instead.

"You mean, 'what is your name?' I'm assuming," he corrected cheerfully.

I sat there, stunned. I had definitely met him before, I knew I had. He was so carefree, unlike all the other experiments around Otogakure. "Um . . . yes, gomen nasai. That's what I meant."

"My name is Hozuki Suigetsu," he told me.

"Hozuki-sama," I said, testing the word out on my tongue.

I could suddenly feel his deep offense at the name. "No. No 'sama,' just Suigetsu, okay?"

"Suigetsu-san," I changed easily, just as I had with Sasuke-san's name.

"Just plain Suigetsu please." I could tell he was smiling, amused at my need to be polite. "I don't need formal titles, or anything."

I always gave titles to people I'd met. I needed something. Suddenly my mind chose a suffix that would most likely work. "Suigetsu-kun?"

"Yeah! That would work," he agreed. "Now what's your name?"

For the first time in two years, I smiled while I wasn't dreaming. And I really smiled, not just the fake smiles I had displayed in order to fool those around me. "I'm Akiko. My name means 'autumn child.' Autumn, the time just before winter."

"Autumn child? I think it suits you. Your definitely not winter, Akiko-chan," he complimented.

My smile only grew into laughter. "Arigato!" Akiko-chan. Chan. He had used the suffix, not the way Orochimaru or Kabuto had spoken the word but actually in a "friendship" type of way. He cared.

But then I remembered the part he had said about winter and autumn. I glanced at, the tank he resided in, confused at his words. "Winter?" No one had ever really listened to my ramblings about the deep meaning behind winter, except for Sasuke-san. And I doubted even he would remember by now.

His voice drew back again as it had when I had asked him if I met him before. "Oh, just some silly thing someone told me once," he said, and he was lying. "About how winter is cold, spring is youth, summer is warmth, and autumn is peace. Y'know?"

I was too startled to respond. Exactly the way I had recited the seasons when I was younger and not afraid of what others thought. I shook my head in confusion. Admitting I was afraid to wound his feelings again, I realized I just _had_ to discover where we had met. "Suigetsu-kun, how do you know this? Who told you? And when?"

Silence had engulfed the room, and as always the lack of sound was suffocating. I worriedly awaited his answer.

"I don't remember."

He was lying. And I wouldn't press for details. "I have to go. Kabuto will check on me soon, and I'll be in trouble if I'm not there."

He spoke no more, so I stood up and began leaving the secret room.

"Akiko-chan," Suigetsu-kun started hesitantly. "Gomen nasai if I hurt your feelings. But will you come back tomorrow?"

I shrugged, still hurt at his distrust toward me. "Only if I have time," I answered, a sharp tone to my voice.

I shut the door behind me, and began walking down the long hallways. The candlelight partially illuminated my way. The candlelight was dark. The candlelight was winter. All of Otogakure was winter now.

Including myself. I gradually regretted my last words to Suigetsu-kun, the only person who seemed to care, to understand. They were cold and numb and dark. I had become winter, the very thing I had longed to destroy in the world. I was not the pure white snow of winter, but the bitterness of the cold.

He had said that autumn, the time of peace, suited me. He was wrong. I was not peaceful; I was ugly and riddled away by the wrath of winter.

But I _was_ sorry. Was winter ever sorry for its sins or its bitterness, the fangs sinking in so deep to the emotions of others? No. It couldn't be, I knew. For winter was also numb, devoid of all feeling. Regret was a feeling. So I couldn't be winter, could I?

I decided that I wasn't winter, yet I still knew I was far away from autumn. I was an exception to the categorizations of seasons. I had no place.

I was neither winter, nor summer, nor spring, nor fall. I was an outcast. Nothing more, nothing less.

The door to my room appeared in front of me, and I strolled straight into the darkness.

I would change the next day, I knew I would. I would visit Suigetsu-kun, and I would do everything in my power to at least be spring or summer. I would never act with the emotions of winter—ever again.

And I would cease my role of an outcast.

Suigetsu-kun was wrong. I was not full of the wonderful season of autumn. But I could, at least, do everything in my power to reach that perfection.

Akiko. Whoever they were, my parents must have really thought about my name. They knew being in a place as cold and as desolate as Otogakure would eventually cause me harm, bring me winter. But somehow the name they had chosen for me had given me a form of hope. My name would always prevent me from losing hope, and winter never possessed any form of hope.

* * *

Part 2 – Akiko, the Autumn Child

I awoke. Memories returned, springing from my mind and into my thoughts. I knew, at once, that sometime today—hopefully early, for it had been rude to leave him hanging—that I would see Suigetsu-kun, and talk to him for a long time. A very long time.

Hopefully Kabuto-sama would be too busy to worry about me. After all, I knew for a fact that Sasuke-san's Chakra channels were still very tangled and that he was still in critical condition. Kabuto would, most likely, be busy with that the entire day.

A few minutes after I awoke, Kabuto came by and unlocked my door. He did not wish for me to starve, so he told me to go find something to eat on my own.

How lucky I had been! The day I needed time the most was the day Kabuto did not care where I went.

Instantly I sprang from my bed and raced down the halls. I was lucky again when I discovered the secret room. Happy that I was able to find it without too much trouble, I entered it excitedly while seeing the same tank of water that had been there before.

I shut the door behind me.

"Suigetsu-kun?" I greeted politely.

No answer.

Was he angry with me? Did he hate me for acting just as winter would? I would understand if the answers were, "yes," but still I was sad that I had lost a possible friend in only an hour's conversation.

"Suigetsu-san?" I repeated, hoping the changed suffix would change his mind.

No answer again.

I sat down, still staring at the water, upset at my loss. But I knew full well that I deserved it. "Gomen nasai," I began slowly. "I was upset last night, and I know I said some things I shouldn't have. I take everything back. Gomen nasai . . . I'm so sorry." I repeated the words over and over again, hoping he was listening.

After a few moments, he exclaimed, "Jeesh, Akiko-chan! I'm trying to sleep!"

I paused in my apology, stunned to silence. "Nani?" I asked after a little quietness.

"You woke me up," he teased. "You may be an early riser, but _I'm_ sure as hell not."

"Oh. Gomen nasai." I blushed. How could I have overlooked something so simple?

He laughed loudly, obviously his way of telling me not to apologize. "Well, now that I'm awake, I should stay awake, at least. What brings you here so early?"

I shrugged, smiling as widely and as truthfully as I had the day before. "I had nothing else to do. I promised myself I'd get here as early as possible."

"That's funny. Last night you weren't sure you'd come here at all," he reminded me casually, not meaning any harm.

But the words stung. "Gomen nasai . . . So very much. I was shutting down; I was winter."

"But your name is Akiko," Suigetsu-kun said cheerfully, "the autumn child. You'll never be winter, I promise." He stopped, allowing the serious part to sink in before he revealed the happier side. "At least, you won't while you talk to me!" he teased.

And I laughed. The sound didn't seem forced or nervous but natural and relaxed. I was truly happy. _Truly_ happy.

Silence began again after my laughter had subsided, but this time the silence was comfortable. "Hey, laugh like that again," he told me, his voice amazed.

I did laugh; I laughed at his amazement. "Why?"

"It's so . . . pure," Suigetsu-kun explained. "All the laughter I ever hear these days is from Orochimaru and Kabuto. I haven't heard laughter that sounded like yours since I was nine and still free."

"Arigato," I replied. "I don't think I've ever laughed like that for a long time anyway though."

A bitter silence followed.

I didn't understand. Was anything I said the wrong thing to say? He had somehow set a mood of isolation about the room. As if I had wronged him when I remembered nothing which he hadn't forgiven me for doing.

Unless . . . Unless I had wronged him and couldn't remember. The familiarity I could feel with him was still there. Maybe I had hurt him back when I had met him.

"Suigetsu-kun?" I began in the most sincere voice I could possibly convey. "What did I do? How did I hurt you?"

He did not answer for a while. I counted the minutes tick by as he debated an answer. But, at least, I knew he would tell me the truth, this time.

Finally his voice spoke, wary and cautious as he went on. "You left me, even after I saved you from a lot of trouble. Kabuto caught you talking to me, and . . . I've never seen you since."

The color drained from my face. Could he have been that boy so long ago, so far away? The one whom I had never given his name and who had never given me his? The one who had _never _attempted to escape, _never _took advantage of my age to run away? The one who had taught me the skill of picking locks, which had come in handy recently? The one whom I had admired and seen as a role model and broken the rules for, just so I could see him?

Could he be that boy whom I had betrayed?

_I laughed, a laugh full of ease. I hadn't forced the sound, and it sounded so natural. So perfectly natural. And he praised me about the "pureness" of it. But it was not fully pure. And we both knew it._

_Our reunion for that day had not gone well, for only moments later had I heard footsteps pounding heavily against the floor outside of the cell, the boy was in._

_The locked door opened, and I was caught speaking to a prisoner when I was not allowed. Kabuto-sama had caught me._

"_Akiko, what are you doing here?" he demanded, adjusting his glasses with a single finger._

_I had no answer. I was so afraid. I was only five years old._

"_It is my fault, Kabuto-baka," the boy had said, coming to my rescue, saving me from speechlessness. "I threatened her to come here and let me escape."_

_Lies. All of his words were lies. I could not believe what my ears were so desperately telling my mind! Why would he protect me? I was the only thing standing in his way of escape!_

_Kabuto-sama's glare turned to my friend, the prisoner, and he nodded in approval. "Thank you for your answer." He looked back toward me. "Is he right, Akiko-chan?"_

_I glanced at the prisoner, unsure of my own answer. But his firm gaze told me all I needed to know._

_I was only five. I did not understand the consequences of my actions._

"_Hai, Kabuto-sama," I told him, obeying the boy's silent command._

"_Good. Now go outside, Akiko-chan. I'll be out in a moment." Kabuto-sama had gestured toward the cell door, and I strolled out without another word, only glancing backwards once._

_Kabuto-sama closed the door when I had left._

_Then I heard the screams, the screams of utter torture, coming from inside of the cell I had spent so much time in. They were all Kabuto-sama's doing, for I knew my only friend inside was the one yelling and screaming._

_I was so ashamed. I should have admitted my disobedience at once, instead of allowing the lie of that boy to fool Kabuto-sama. But I was only five. I didn't understand._

_And so I curled up into a tiny ball, plugged my ears, and hummed softly to myself. Even then I could hear a soft cry of pain coming from far, far away._

_Soon Kabuto-sama came out and picked me up. He had been sympathetic toward me, knowing how any torture would upset me. Soon I found myself laid out on my bed, and Kabuto-sama left, locking the door as he went._

_That boy had been my only friend. Yes, I was only five, but I still knew one thing clearer than any other. The pain Kabuto-sama had inflicted upon him was entirely my fault for not being honest._

_I would never be able to face him again. And I never did as the years went by._

I gasped as the memory ripped my heart and soul into pieces. "Gomen nasai, Suigetsu-kun! Gomen nasai, gomen nasai, gomen nasai!" Teardrops from my eyes fell like rain below my kneeled body. How would he ever forgive me for not being honest with Kabuto-sama, for not saving him from that torture? "I should have told him! I should have told him the truth about what had happened! Gomen nasai!"

"Akiko-chan . . ." he began quietly. "Please stop crying."

I cried even more. "Gomen nasai!"

"I _wanted_ you to tell a lie to Kabuto-baka," Suigetsu-kun continued. "That was the whole point. I made sure you wouldn't be hurt for breaking the rules. Don't be sorry for lying to Kabuto! I'm just a little sad that you never came and talked to me after that day."

My tears ceased falling, and I lifted my gaze to the tank full of water that the small boy, my only friend back then, had become. "I . . . I don't understand."

"Obviously," Suigetsu-kun teased, except his voice was dry, without emotion. "I don't mean to sound boastful, but I did take the punishment that was rightfully yours, for the sole reason of you being my friend. And I thought it would only make our friendship stronger. I guess I was wrong 'cause you never came to see me again."

I shook my head in confusion. "But that was because I thought you were mad at me! I thought you hated me for not telling Kabuto the truth, and . . . So I didn't think I could face you after he had hurt you. Gomen nasai! I didn't know—"

"All a misunderstanding apparently," he interrupted. "Don't be sorry. And stop crying please."

Wiping the tears from my eyes, I nodded quickly. "I'm so sorry. If I had known—"

"Hey, I said no 'sorry's! You're here now, right?" he reminded cheerfully. "It's fine, 'kay?"

"Hai."

"Well, now that that's cleared up, let's talk about something happier . . ."

And that's what we did. We spoke for hours on end on silly things, interesting things, but never depressing things. Once I was hungry, I ran to grab something to eat, but I immediately came back, and we began talking again.

Soon I knew it was late, and so we each gave a goodbye. I left for bed.

Over the next few days, I took every chance I received to speak to him again—which wasn't much since Kabuto-sama needed me, most of the time. For the entire week, I spoke with him as much as possible.

I had never been so happy and cheerful in my life. For the first time, I really did feel "pure" and "innocent." I felt peaceful. Suigetsu-kun had showed me what it meant to be autumn, and I never could have thanked him more.

For once in my life, I felt as though I would never be tainted by winter again. And I would never be an outcast. I would always be autumn.

I would be Akiko, the autumn child. Nothing else.

-Splasher-


	5. Chapter 5

_Author's Notes_: Whoops sorry!! Those of you who had this on your alert list probably got bombarded with E-mails because I kept making mistakes that I saw when I updated. -hits myself- Sorry!

Thank you for all the reviews. :-) I hated this chapter. I mean, seriously, I just barely got _into_ the habit of calling Kabuto, whom I hate so much, _Kabuto-sama_, and now my brain decided to find a reason to forbid me from calling him that anymore! So now I have to get out of the dumb habit again. T.T Hehe, anyway . . . I'm so weird. But thank you for reading and/or reviewing! You are all awesome!

_Disclaimer_: I do not own Kishimoto's characters, but I do own my original character Akiko and this specific plot.

_Japanese Words_:  
_-San_: A less formal yet still formal version of "-sama"  
_-Kun_: An informal title, usually given to a male child  
_Hai_: Yes! (usually said after a command has been given)  
_-Sama_: A title given to a person with much higher rank than oneself  
_-Chan_: An informal title, usually given to a female child  
_Dewa Mata_: See you.  
_Arigato Gozaimasu_: Thank you very much.  
_Yoi yume o_: Sweet dreams.  
_Iie_: No.  
_Konichiwa_: Good afternoon.  
_Nani_: What?

* * *

The Candle Light

_Together_

Part 1 – Change is Frozen in the Depths of Time

Sasuke-san was still recovering, and I was sad for him. Most of the time, he was unconscious, yet, when he awoke, he was winter all over again. Soon I realized how he masked up his feelings with winter, becoming colder whenever he felt weak and vulnerable. I was sad for him. He didn't need to deal with his problems on his own.

Kabuto had been very strict lately, and I was unable to see Suigetsu-kun as often as I would have liked. I could only hope that he would understand, and not see my dictated actions as a betrayal. He was very kind though. Somehow I could tell that he knew what was going on.

I remained in Kabuto's lab at most hours so I could make sure Sasuke-san would recover. Kabuto didn't mind as long as I was in his sight and not wandering around the halls of Otogakure without supervision.

Days passed, and nothing changed. I knew for a fact that most people hated change. I had asked almost everyone I met whether they enjoyed constants or changes better. Not a single person had loved change. Back when I was younger, I had been the same.

But now I was different. I enjoyed change. As much as I used to need the constant of silence or the constant of Kabuto, I realized that I only _needed_ it. Did one love to feel their heart beating or their lungs taking in air? I was apathetic toward the constants that kept me alive. Yes, I needed oxygen, and I needed my heart to continue with a steady thump, thump, thump, but I did not enjoy it. Just as I needed the constants but never loved them.

I did love change. Yet change was frozen, unable to live, deep within Otogakure. I wanted something different to happen.

After half a month had swept by like a river moving freely down the mountain, Sasuke-san had returned to normal. Orochimaru still trained him, but Sasuke-san grew stronger after each day. Rarely was Kabuto needed to fix the Uchiha's injuries, so mostly I was the one to heal the minor wounds.

He hardly spoke to me, but I knew that was just his personality. For some reason though, I couldn't rid of my uneasy feeling that something had happened to him while he was young—something awful.

One time when I was sent to heal him again, I decided to ask him about his past. "Sasuke-san . . . ?" I began slowly as if too much haste would destroy any fragments of friendship that we still had.

His dark, onyx eyes merely glanced at mine in order to tell me he was listening.

"Why did you . . . come here?" I spoke the words clearly and cautiously, for sometimes he would say something cold to avoid the subject.

A frown settled upon his features. I had angered him. But he had not said anything yet, so I knew he would answer eventually.

His voice of winter told me, "Orochimaru promised me power. And I accepted."

Vague yet clear. I hesitated before going on. "Power? For what?"

His frown submerged into deeper anger. "Why are _you_ at Otogakure, Akiko?"

I stifled a sigh. He had avoided the subject maliciously, a tactic he had always used against me. Coldly pressing others for information was his way of avoiding giving away information about himself. I couldn't help but be a little unhappy with being insulted though.

"I'm not here of my own free will, and you know that," I shot back, somehow keeping my voice to a bitter quietness.

He ignored me as he glared at the wall, the emptiness of the wall. The emptiness which caused silence.

Perpetual silence.

I broke the silence. "Will Orochimaru be coming back soon?" I already knew Kabuto wouldn't check on me for a long time. He believed that I still had difficulty healing broken bones, even though now it was as simple as breathing for me. I had already finished healing the Uchiha.

"No," Sasuke-san answered. "He won't be training me again until tomorrow. Why do you ask?"

I smiled in relief. "I have someone I want you to meet."

Winter lived inside of Sasuke-san, who was so full of regret and numbness. At one point, I, too, had fallen into that darkness. But Suigetsu-kun had caught me before my plummet to winter. Maybe he could save Sasuke-san, too.

"Who?" Sasuke-san demanded.

"You don't know him," I answered vaguely, "but he's really lonely and really nice. You'd—"

Sasuke-san was not one to fall for vagueness as I always did. "Who?" he repeated.

"Suigetsu-kun," I finally supplied. "His name means moon water. Like the tale of the monkey and the moon . . ."

Sasuke-san stood, and I did the same. "Is he a ninja?" the Uchiha asked as if he held a secret motive to meet Suigetsu-kun. I was sure he did. He probably would have refused to meet Suigetsu-kun if he hadn't had a better reason than mine.

I nodded. "Hai, Sasuke-san. He says that, before he was captured, he was training under Zabuza Momochi, one of the Seven Swordsmen. Orochimaru himself went to Kirigakure to capture Suigetsu-kun."

Sasuke-san scrutinized my face, looking for any tint of a lie.

Yet I was no liar unless I needed to be one. I wouldn't lie to Sasuke-san nor to Suigetsu-kun. I only hoped my face displayed my emotions.

He seemed satisfied and nodded. "Fine. Take me to him."

I led the way toward where I knew Suigetsu-kun would be. After a few minutes, we had arrived, and I showed Sasuke-san the secret entrance. "Kabuto-sam—uh, Kabuto, I mean—obviously wants to keep Suigetsu-kun hidden from those who could set him free." I sighed. Ever since I had stopped calling Kabuto _Kabuto-sama_, I had had trouble destroying the habit. Sometimes I would slip and call him merely _Kabuto_ to his face, as well. He suspected disobedience, I knew.

Sasuke-san nodded, so I led him inside to the tank of water. He stared dubiously at the tank as if he were wondering what was so special about it, yet the emotion only barely registered on his face.

"Akiko-chan, who is this?" Suigetsu-kun asked, and I could hear the smile in his voice. But I could also sense the tension; he was afraid he had been caught speaking to me.

I rushed to answer, to erase any doubt of me that he had in his mind. "He's Sasuke-san," I explained. "He's training under Orochimaru, but don't worry. He's a friend."

Sasuke-san nodded in approval of my answer. "I heard you were a ninja," he told Suigetsu-kun impassively.

"Were one? I still am a ninja," he teased cheerfully. " . . . If I could get out of here, I'd show you."

Sasuke-san did not respond. I could see he appeared thoughtful. He was already very secretive, I knew, but something warned me that he had a huge secret or maybe huge _secrets_, hidden deep within his mind, full of winter. Things that were gradually ripping his soul apart from the inside.

"You trained under Zabuza Momochi?" Sasuke-san asked finally.

The question stung my heart, but I suppressed the feeling. Sasuke-san never believed what I told him anyway. I was only eight. Who would believe the words of a child, no matter how mature she was?

"Yeah . . . Jeez, I feel like I'm being interrogated."

I laughed. Suigetsu-kun always made me laugh whether I wanted to be happy or not. Sasuke-san always made me sad. But Sasuke-san was more serious and more caring about other people's lives than Suigetsu-kun seemed to be, or at least of what each had said. Both of them were good in their own ways.

Suddenly the secret door behind us opened, and we all looked to see who had entered. The woman standing there appeared just as shocked as I felt, and Sasuke-san seemed a little surprised, too.

"I thought I sensed some different Chakra signals in here." She glared from behind her glasses at me, and I took a small step back involuntarily. But her glaring didn't last long, for, when she looked at Sasuke-san, her face softened. She appeared . . . flirty.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Sasuke-kun," she cooed. "I didn't know it was you in here."

Sasuke-_kun_? Who would dare call the formidable Uchiha _Sasuke-kun_? I was shocked. Even _Sasuke-san_ had been a little pushy, and I would not have called him that if he hadn't asked specifically for me not to call him Uchiha.

She ignored my stunned expression, and her maroon eyes returned to glaring at me. "What are you doing here, Akiko?"

Recognition hit me abruptly, and I recalled this woman with the red hair and matching eyes to be called Karin. She was a gifted ninja, chosen by Orochimaru himself to help him run things around Otogakure.

Most of the time, she was very rude to me, acting as if I were a speck of dust on her clothing. Technically that really _was_ my status, but even Kabuto hadn't regarded me as such.

Her question, let alone her even being here, caught me off guard, and I couldn't think of a suitable response to get myself out of trouble. I knew if Kabuto discovered I had been here, he would torture Suigetsu-kun even more, and I would blame myself. I needed to come up with an excuse—fast.

Suigetsu-kun as always came to my rescue, and I hoped he wasn't sacrificing himself again, just as he had last time we had been caught together. "Akiko was sent here by Kabuto to check on me since no one's been here in such a long time," he explained to Karin. "You're so paranoid about everything, Four Eyes."

Somehow he had known just the right words to say, for she was done interrogating me and on to bickering with him. "I am not! And don't call me Four Eyes, you lazy-ass," she shot back.

"Only if you don't call me lazy-ass," he responded, his tone tinted with a teasing smile.

"Ugh! You're so mean!" Karin turned to Sasuke-san directly afterward. "Isn't he so rude, Sasuke-kun?"

Sasuke-san said nothing, only angering me to a point where I had to say something.

"No! He's not mean. He's actually very nice," I argued, defending Suigetsu-kun.

Karin glanced apathetically at my face, her indifferent expression transforming into a glare. "I wasn't asking for your opinion, Akiko. Kabuto-san needs to teach you better manners."

I glared back, forcing back my instinct to cry.

Suigetsu-kun began laughing. "Someone needs to teach _you _better manners, Four Eyes. And if you're lucky, they'll teach you how to cut your hair the right way, too."

Karin bristled, totally unable to control her anger any longer. "That's it! I'm cutting half of your nutrient supply off," she exclaimed, stalking over to the controls, handling the tank Suigetsu-kun was trapped in. "You'll be too weak to even think of a good retort soon enough."

"Well, when you do get around to killing me, I hope you have a good excuse for Kabuto," Suigetsu-kun told her, completely at ease.

I, however, was not at ease. How could he be so carefree, even when that fool was taking away the things keeping him alive? But my habit settled in as it always did when shock or anger hit me. I was speechless and unable to move. I could only obey.

"I _will_ have a good excuse! Besides, Kabuto-san couldn't care less about you!" Karin said as she gradually changed the settings on the controls.

Suigetsu-kun didn't reply, but I knew it was not due to the lack of determination or the lack of thought. Karin was killing him!

"That's enough," Sasuke-san stated, taking the controls from Karin, and changing them back to how they were before. "If he ends up dead, I'll tell Orochimaru himself exactly what happened. And you'll end up dead, as well."

She shook her head in a feminine fashion. "Oh, Sasuke-kun, you wouldn't do that," she purred.

"I would. Now stop tampering with this machine."

Karin sighed in frustration before eyeing me disdainfully again. "Kabuto-san can't have sent you here to check on fish boy because _I_ was sent here to do that."

I felt my face grow white, and I bit my lip, sinking my teeth in just far enough before it could bleed. I averted her gaze.

"Akiko is here because I told her to come," Sasuke-san explained, coming to my rescue, just like Suigetsu-kun had. He wasn't exactly lying; he had asked me to lead him here. He just wasn't telling the full truth.

And from what I could tell from Karin's reaction, she didn't expect him to elaborate. "Oh, so dumb-ass over there was lying, just as I thought." She paused. "Well, now that I know he's alive, I better go. Dewa mata, Sasuke-kun."

She left as swiftly as she had arrived. And as soon as she was gone, I sunk to a sitting position and suppressed my tears.

I could feel Sasuke-san's eyes boring into the top of my head. A calmness spread throughout the air, centering around him. "Don't worry, Akiko. Suigetsu will be fine."

I nodded, wiping my eyes as I glanced up again. "Arigato gozaimasu, Sasuke-san."

He shook his head, saying in his own little way how a "thank you" was not necessary, and began leaving the room. Before he was gone, he turned his head to look at me again. "Arigato. For showing me this place."

"Of course."

"Kabuto will be looking for you shortly, I'm sure," he added before he disappeared from my sight.

I nodded, even though he was gone, and turned one last time to Suigetsu-kun, who, I knew, was still soundly asleep. He would have said something if he had woken up. "Yoi yume o."

I would come back tomorrow.

* * *

Part 2 – Change Has Awoken At Last

Change had returned to my life, even the tiniest bit. Karin had been a different face, a different person than to whom I was accustomed. I had already known her from before, yes, but I hadn't seen her in a long while.

At least, something was different.

I was visiting Suigetsu-kun once again, and he _was_ fine, just as Sasuke-san had said he would be.

He was babbling away, and I listened, always with a smile on my face.

Suddenly he shocked me with a question, the same question Sasuke-san had asked in what seemed like so long ago. I was still not prepared to answer. "So you've never tried to escape?"

I bit my lip and examined the floor. "Iie." I could remember the day I had chosen never to escape, not due to the fear of punishment but due to the determination to ease other's pain. But how could I explain my reasoning to Suigetsu-kun without sounding silly?

"Why?"

"I . . . I've just never thought about it is all."

I could almost imagine Suigetsu-kun's rolling of the eyes or shaking of the head. He was very perceptive. He would not believe a lie. "You've lived eight years. Of course, you've thought about it by now, silly. Besides, the first time you came in here you were crying about not being able to escape."

My teeth sunk deeper into my lip. Sasuke-san's evasiveness when asked a direct question was astounding to me, and I wished I could mimic it right then. But I couldn't. "I need to stay here. I've seen what Kabuto does, how he hurts his prisoners needlessly without regret. Even toward Sasuke-san. And I know I care. If I can stay to heal without causing as much pain as Kabuto would, then I will. I can't—won't—escape."

I heard his sigh echo against the walls. "That's a really retarded reason, Akiko. No offense."

My mind wouldn't think of a plausible reply, so I remained quiet.

"You're only eight, after all."

The door opened from behind me, just as it had the last time I had been here, and Karin strolled in, once again. I could see the malicious intent in her eyes. As she strolled in, she was mumbling something to herself about Sasuke-san not being in here anymore.

My eyes widened when I realized why she had come. Sasuke-san wasn't present, this time.

Karin spotted me and smirked. "Oh, it's you again. What are you doing here now?"

"I could ask you the same question." I tried to move, blocking her from the controls, but she saw my plan and moved quicker.

Suigetsu-kun sighed again. "Oh no, it's the bitch."

"If you would shut up, maybe I wouldn't be trying to kill you!"

My eyes were filling with water, but I resisted the urge to cry. Now was not the time to be upset. I needed to be strong. "Stop it!" I exclaimed as loud as I could.

The two did stop bickering, surprised at my sudden vehement. Obviously they had not expected any arguments from me.

"I've had enough of each of you trying to hurt the other!" Despite being able to yell, I still felt my cheeks grow wetter and wetter as I continued. I glanced at Karin angrily. "If you touch those controls, I'll tell Sasuke-san what you did, and he'll _still _tell Orochimaru."

I had never actually shouted at someone like that before, especially someone who had the power to tell me what to do. Suigetsu-kun was important to me, and somehow I could tell that Sasuke-san, as well, didn't want him to die.

The two, each an enemy of the other, were frozen, speechless, in shock.

"Ha! Fine," Karin finally said. "But I wouldn't hang around with this asshole, Akiko. If you knew anything of his past . . . how many he killed . . ."

Her words hit a weak point, one that only stung because I knew it to be true. I followed her as she left the room in order to get one last word in for Suigetsu-kun's favor. "People change."

"Most don't."

I watched her go, unable to say anything else. Then I returned to the secret room. My mind wasn't functioning, and my heart was tearing itself into two separate pieces. One for remorse of meeting Suigetsu-kun and one for forgiveness of his murders.

"She's right, you know," Suigetsu-kun admitted, his voice still somehow cheerful.

I shook my head. "You've changed, I'm sure of it!"

"Iie, I'm still the same. I came from Kirigakure," he continued. "They used to call it the 'Bloody Mist.' You wouldn't like it there."

So I had been right after all. While Suigetsu-kun was kind and cheerful compared to Sasuke-san's coldness, Sasuke-san would never kill anyone unless he had to whereas Suigetsu-kun was ruthless.

Which one was better than the other? The kind one or the merciful one? I couldn't decide. I couldn't choose.

"Kabuto will be wondering where I am if I don't go," my voice said without emotion. Winter had been entering my body, and the thought of leaving was making it go quicker than anything I had ever felt, for as soon as I spoke, emotion began flowing back through me, leaving winter behind.

I began to leave, but I could hear Suigetsu-kun's unspoken question echoing throughout my mind.

"I'm coming back," I answered. Then I left.

Things had changed, sooner than I had expected. But maybe the change wasn't for the better. Change—or rather the change that had shown how there _was_ no change—had brought grief. I only wished Suigetsu-kun had lied, saying that he _had_ changed from who he was before because sometimes lies were better, more necessary, than the truth.

Sometimes lies were the only way to make someone happy.

I was sad. The candlelight of darkness didn't help my emotions at all.

As I strolled past what I knew to be Sasuke-san's room, I noticed that the door was unlocked and open wide, which was far from normal. Sasuke-san preferred seclusion and isolation from those who would bring out his feelings. He dealt with his internal problems with no help from the outside.

I glanced inside, only to see Sasuke-san, sleeping soundly, his breath even and deep.

Why was his door left open?

I saw a shadow in his room, moving carefully toward Sasuke-san. The shadow edged close and closer in the dark room, not illuminated by candlelight. Orochimaru possibly? No . . . Orochimaru would never have reason to sneak around, and neither would Kabuto.

Suddenly the shadow was directly over Sasuke-san, and I couldn't move. The fear froze my limbs, leaving them stiff and cold. I longed to scream as the figure leaned over the Uchiha, but no noise would exit my mouth.

Finally gathering up the courage, I entered Sasuke-san's room, and the startled shadow jumped in surprise. "You again," the voice hissed. I couldn't tell whose voice it was though.

I moved closer in order to see who the figure was.

Karin.

I glanced at Sasuke-san, who was waking up slowly yet surely. He would see us in only seconds. I ran, hearing the soft footsteps behind me as Karin shut the door behind us quickly, and we left, racing down the hallways, never stopping until we were far, far away.

I stopped and sat down first, being the younger one and more prone to exhaustion. But seeing me out of breath, Karin stopped, as well. Our gasps for air echoed throughout the walls of Otogakure, and I was sure I could hear my own heartbeat pounding inside my chest rapidly.

"What were you thinking?" Karin demanded. "Sasuke-kun could have caught me in there because of you!"

I frowned at the floor, covering my anger with exhaustion. "What were you doing there in the first place?" The bitter edge in my tone was difficult to keep at bay.

"Like I'd tell someone like you."

Suddenly I glanced up at her face, her crimson red face. I knew the blush was not due to exhaustion from running. "You were . . . going to kiss—"

"Be quiet, Akiko, or I'll tell Kabuto-sama that you're breaking the rules." Her blush had deepened to a darker shade of red, and I could tell she was hugely perturbed and embarrassed.

I suppressed my abrupt laugh, but soon I found that I couldn't stop. I couldn't quite place my finger on what exactly was so funny, but the laughter kept coming with or without a reason.

Karin only grew more flustered. "You better not tell anyone," she warned before stalking off. Before she was gone, she glanced back at me, her eyes actually looking at _me_ for the first time in my life. I was a person to her now, not a stain on her clothing that would never be washed away.

"You're not half-bad, Akiko," she muttered and then continued with her dramatic exit.

My laughter had subsided before she spoke, but a smile remained. There was a change like no other, a change worth remembering.

Remembering . . .

* * *

Part 3 – Destruction of Change By Change Alone

I had recounted the tale of Karin-san to Suigetsu-kun, and he had laughed and laughed and laughed. Just as I had. I knew Karin-san didn't wish for me to tell anyone, and so I politely asked Suigetsu-kun not to tease her about it.

He agreed, overjoyed that I still thought of him as a person, despite his bloody past.

Ever since then, at the exact time of day where Kabuto would not be looking for me, Sasuke-san, Karin-san, and I gathered at the secret room. Normally Sasuke-san rarely came, but sometimes he did, remaining in the background and remaining quiet.

Most of the time was filled with Suigetsu-kun's and Karin-san's bickering, which was most unpleasant. But Karin-san no longer desired to kill Suigetsu-kun, and I was deeply relieved.

But one day, my only time of freedom eluded me when Kabuto actually walked me to my room. He was suspicious of what occurred while I was either not locked up or out of his sight.

Karin-san walked by us, and she nodded once to him and me, saying nothing. I stopped and looked back at her due to the shock of her not actually speaking to me.

"Come, Akiko-chan," Kabuto ordered, pulling my arm.

"Hai, Kabuto-sama."

Something was off. Something was off about Karin.

When we reached our destination, he locked me in my room as he always had, but I still couldn't help but wonder why he hadn't allowed me to walk to my room on my own. Why did he not leave me out of his sight today of all days?

"Kabuto." I heard Orochimaru speak from outside of the door.

"Konichiwa, Orochimaru-sama," Kabuto responded. His tone sounded a little frustrated to me, but I could have imagined it. "So Karin is supposed to go to the South Base tonight?"

I heard a soft chuckle. "Yes . . . The poor girl. She didn't want to leave. But she's the only one worthy of watching things over there. I don't trust anyone else, besides you and Sasuke-kun."

I shook my head as the tears began to pour freely out of my eyes. My legs gave out on me soon enough, and I fell to my knees while desperately wiping the corners of my eyes with a dry hand. She was being sent away?

Still my ears strained to listen.

There was a long pause, which was soon filled with Orochimaru's sigh. "What are you going to do about her?"

"Her? I'll have her memory wiped, most likely. She's too defiant. She wants to escape." Kabuto's voice echoed throughout my head.

They couldn't be talking about Karin-san anymore. Whose memory wiped? Who wanted to escape? Definitely not Karin-san.

"That's a good idea," Orochimaru agreed. "It's intriguing—that an eight-year-old girl would become so rebellious so soon. It's probably Sasuke-kun's doing . . . I know he's been with her a lot lately. I apologize for however he ruined her loyalty. I'll keep a closer eye on him."

Me? They were talking about . . . me?

"Well, Suigetsu Hozuki probably had some say in it, as well," Kabuto replied. "I have no doubt she's been seeing him every day again, just like she used to when she was five. I let her off easy back then."

Orochimaru laughed, his voice boiling my blood cold, like a waterfall falling freely into an eerily black lake. I could hear their footsteps retreating slowly as he said, "No wonder we have so many problems keeping him alive. You probably gave him internal damage when you tortured him back then."

"Not to worry, he'll be in a stable condition very soon. A week, at the most . . ." Kabuto's voice faded from my listening range.

I slid back, closer to my bed, and hid my face in my hands. How did Kabuto know about everything? Could someone have told him, have "tattled" on me?

I shook my head at my own words. I trusted Sasuke-san, Karin-san, and Suigetsu-kun. None of them would betray me. But the question of how he had discovered what happened when I was gone still remained. I would probably never know.

A knock came at the door, and it opened directly after. Sasuke-san appeared, and I was relieved to see a familiar face that wasn't out to harm me.

He scrutinized me without missing anything. What was he doing here? "Akiko, what happened?"

I hadn't been able to hide my despair after all. He knew something was very wrong. "He's going to erase my memory, Sasuke-san," I said, my voice wavering, out of control. "Kabuto is . . . He knows everything."

The expression of winter faded from his face and was replaced with a look of concern. He entered and sat down beside me, not offering comfort and not touching me but just sitting there as he stared down the wall.

"What should I do?" If anyone would know, he would.

He removed his gaze from the wall and looked at his hands in his lap instead. "I don't know."

"Nani?" I gasped in disbelief.

He shook his head. "I don't know what you should do, Akiko," he repeated softly.

Dark silence overcame the room, lit with a simple candlelight. Dark silence was just as frustrating as Kabuto or nighttime was. I couldn't breathe in winter's stillness, in its silence. I couldn't think.

"Why did you come here?" I asked. I needed to break the silence.

"Usually you go talk to Suigetsu at a certain time," he answered. "You weren't there."

I bit my lip. "Arigato gozaimasu. For coming."

He didn't answer, but I knew it was his way of acknowledging gratitude.

This time, the silence was light and good. Sasuke-san neither moved nor made any desire of wanting to move known. I was grateful that he knew I would cry out of loneliness if he left.

Soon I felt my eyes begin to drift shut, and Sasuke-san noticed. He lifted me upon my bed, and began to take his leave. Wait. He was leaving?

"No," I whispered, dread settling into my mind. "I don't want to be alone. Please . . ."

He paused in thought before turning around and sitting back down beside me. "I'll stay with you until you're asleep. Then I have to go, all right?"

I nodded. "Hai, Sasuke-san. Thank you for everything."

There was no verbal response, but he had nodded.

"Sasuke-san?"

"Yes?"

"Will you say sorry to Suigetsu-kun for me please? When I'm gone?"

"Yes."

Relieved at his answer, my eyes closed completely, and I knew I would soon be asleep.

But I still I felt Sasuke-san's presence the entire time while I was still half-awake, him repeating over and over again, "Don't forget, Akiko-chan."

Or maybe I was dreaming; maybe he had already left.

Either way, I was happy for one last moment of my life. My true life, full of meaning. Akiko, the autumn child's life.

Change had occurred. And change would put a halt to all other changes.

Change's destruction of change.

Still—I was happy.

-Splasher-


	6. Chapter 6

_Author's Notes_: Ugh! More research. :-( I hate research . . . -- Oh, and this fan-fiction is so mean to me! Does anyone have any idea how hard it is to write about someone losing her memory? :'( Oh! And you get to guess who the person arguing with Kabuto is in the first part. XD But it should be easy to figure out. If anyone is dying to know, PM me or ask in a review, and I'll tell you. Thanks for reviews! Enjoy!

_Disclaimer_: I do not own Kishimoto's characters, but I do own my original character Akiko and this specific plot.

_Japanese Words_:  
_-Sama_: A title given to a person with much higher rank than oneself  
_Iie_:No.  
_-Chan_: An informal title, usually given to a female child  
_Hai_: Yes! (usually said after a command has been given)  
_Sawaranaide_: Don't touch!  
_-San_: A less formal yet still formal version of "-sama"  
_-Baka_: An impolite and informal title to give someone unlikable  
_Matte_: Wait!  
_Onegai_: Please!  
_Nani_: What?  
_Gomen nasai_: I am sorry.

* * *

The Candle Light

_Memory_

Part 1 – Lost and Forlorn is the Memory of Autumn

My eyes were terrified of opening. Bright light shone through them, even when they were shut tightly. I couldn't move my arms or legs, for I felt rough metal holding them down onto a laboratory table. I heard distant voices, too—one was Kabuto's, I was sure. But who was the other? Definitely not Orochimaru's because I would know immediately if it were him. The unknown voice sounded cold and angry.

Finally my mind decided to awaken, and I strained my ears to hear what was going on.

"What you're doing is wrong," I heard someone say in a slightly angry voice. "She has the right to make her own choices. Allow her to break the rules, and she will accept the consequences. _This_ is not a fair consequence."

Kabuto chuckled. "What gives you any right to dictate my actions? Orochimaru-sama has already approved. You would do well to support him."

"You mistake me for a child," the voice retorted. "Orochimaru holds no power over me, and neither do you. Stop this experiment now."

"Iie."

"This is a silly idea. She doesn't have enough memories for some to be erased without doing her harm. Don't you believe an eight-year-old girl deserves freedom or at the very least her memory?"

"Iie." Kabuto's voice was firm and absolute.

I heard the unknown person's retreating footsteps as he warned, "You'll regret this someday. And so will Orochimaru."

Kabuto laughed, his voice like fire cackling and burning away. "Big words from such a young child." Then I heard him approach me, and I opened my eyes in fear.

The light in front of my face stung my eyes, bringing tears of pain, which cached on my skin.

"You're awake, Akiko-chan," Kabuto commented as a smirk appeared on his face. "Don't be afraid. I'm just doing a scan of your brain to compare it to some of my experiments."

Lies. All lies. "Iie, Kabuto-sama! Don't take my memories!"

Kabuto sighed. "What nonsense is that?" he scolded gently. "I won't touch your memories."

As soon as he was finished speaking, I felt him begin shaving off a part of my hair in order to make room for the surgery, and I shook my head, crying and crying. "Iie! Iie! _Iie_! Kabuto-sama, please!"

He was not gentle anymore, for he held my head down and glared at me. "Akiko-chan, do you know what will happen if you keep moving your head? I will probably make a mistake, and you'll die. Dying is worse than losing your memories, now isn't that right?"

I heard only our breaths echo against the wall. "Hai, Kabuto-sama."

"Good. Now stay still."

A cold substance began rubbing the bare part of my scalp. He was cleaning it now, preparing for the incision he would make. My body remained stiff and solid; I didn't dare to move even a finger.

"Keep very still."

I stayed as still as possible, even when a sharp pain hit me as he drilled a hole into my head and through my skull. Only my tears were free to move. He was temporarily removing a piece of my skull now, I was sure.

I didn't move.

Then I felt him prodding around the deep layers of my mind, searching for the memories to disband.

My finger moved.

They were drifting, drifting so far away, and I couldn't reach them. One by one they left. No more knowledge of picking a lock.

My hand moved involuntarily.

"Stay still, Akiko-chan."

No more remembrance of my first meeting of Karin-san.

My foot twitched.

They were going, fading, being consumed by time itself. My memories, the only precious ones I had, were dying.

My eyelids moved, closing over my eyes.

"Stay still."

"_Iie!_" I screamed as loud as I possibly could. My voice was shattered, broken, and its piercing sound was a thousand knives, stabbing the air.

Kabuto sighed in defeat and moved toward the counter, no doubt to grab more supplies for his task.

I struggled against the only things keeping me down on the table. They held me down as tight as my eyes were closed. I heard him growing closer again with some unknown technique to tame my "wild" behavior.

"Sawaranaide! Stop it!" I screamed again.

"I had hoped to avoid giving you a sedative," he spoke over my shouts of despair, "but it seems that there is no choice here."

I shook my head. "_Iie!_"

No use. The needle stabbed into my skin sharply, and, at once, I felt the need to sleep. Drowsiness. I would never be able to fight while I was unconscious. I felt my memories leaving already.

_Don't forget, Akiko-chan_.

Yes, Sasuke-san was still there, in my mind—partially. I couldn't forget, not when I had lived, rather than just survived, for the first time in my life. I would _try_ to keep those memories.

_Don't forget, Akiko-chan._

Hai. I wouldn't try. I would _never_ forget.

Somehow I would remember. Somehow.

Blackness swept over me, just as I imagined night to spread across the sky. The sedative had begun its effect.

* * *

Part 2 – Who Are They, the Ones Who Fight and Fight to No Avail?

The moon was so gorgeous, plagued by stars all around it. They twinkled and shone, tiny dots compared to the gigantic moon, a miracle sent by the sun. But it was not pure white as the snow that fell during winter.

The moon was gray. Craters littered the tainted moon, bringing small crags of black and death. The moon was not pure.

Then the sun rose, and I was sad. The monstrous rays of the sun stung my eyes, just as that white light, that ferocious white light I had seen before in Kabuto-sama's lab. Where was the sun? The beauty, the wonder? Could this be a bad sun, filled with pain and suffering?

All I remembered with Kabuto-sama's clinical light was pain and suffering, as well. But I was not under that light anymore. I was . . . somewhere . . . somewhere far away, standing at the edge of my own reality. Something was missing. I was somewhere far away.

My eyes opened cautiously, afraid of the sun or the moon or the clinical light. But I had only been dreaming. I had been far away.

I rubbed my eyes tiredly, and glanced at the door. If memory served me correctly, I had lots of healing to do because I had left off yesterday. Yesterday? No, it couldn't have been just yesterday since I had begun healing minor injuries of Kabuto-sama's experiments. So much had happened since then! And yet so little . . .

Something important was missing. Something that had given me life.

The door opened as it interrupted my thoughts. Kabuto-sama stood, outlined by the dark light of the candlelight.

"Come with me, Akiko-chan," he commanded.

"Hai, Kabuto-sama." I rose and followed him toward his laboratory. My legs wished to move on their own, move in the opposite direction he was leading me. And I didn't know why. I bit my lip and pushed their urge in the back of my mind. The back of my mind had so much room—too much room. It felt empty.

Once we reached his laboratory, I watched Kabuto-sama expectantly. "Should I start healing from where I started off yesterday, Kabuto-sama?"

He turned to me as he adjusted his glasses with a finger. He was smirking, and I didn't know why. Some insider's joke that everyone but me would understand. I knew something was missing.

"Yes, that would be very helpful, Akiko-chan," he told me.

But before I could obey his command, the door to his laboratory opened, once again. I glanced at the visitor curiously, his dark eyes looking at me, as well. I removed my gaze and stared at the floor instead. Who was he? I had never seen him around Otogakure in my entire life.

"Sasuke-kun," Kabuto-sama greeted.

Sasuke-_san_, not Sasuke-kun, Kabuto-baka! Wait . . . I was so lost. I couldn't think. No, Sasuke-sama should be his name unless I discovered his last name. Why did I have the sudden urge to correct Kabuto-sama? And where did Kabuto-_baka_ come from?

"I've told you not to call me that." The visitor was cold and numb, just like winter.

Winter . . . What was winter? I didn't understand. What was wrong with me?

Kabuto-sama moved in front of me in order to block him from my sight. "Why are you here?"

"Orochimaru sent me here. He said he wanted you to give me some type of pill . . . ?"

Despite not being able to see Sasuke-sama, I could still hear his voice, his strangely familiar voice. His voice seemed to be signifying me, trying to get me to pay attention. My hands involuntarily grasped my head as if I were in pain. And I _was_ in pain. Something was missing, and I didn't know what!

"Why don't you wait outside, young Uchiha?"

_Sasuke_-san. No! Uchiha-sama! I wanted this Uchiha to go away.

"Nani?" he asked coldly.

"You're upsetting Akiko-chan."

He left quickly after that, and I sat down, curling up into a ball. Kabuto-sama picked me up soon after and brought me out of his lab. As he walked past Sas—Uchiha-sama, my gaze locked with his dark one for an instant of a second.

_Don't forget, Akiko-chan._

And for that split-second, I knew everything, exactly what I was missing, exactly why my head hurt. But the moment he looked away, I was lost once again.

Kabuto-sama brought me back to my room. "I guess it was too soon," he told himself and began leaving.

"Matte! Too soon for what? Kabuto-sama," I pleaded, clinging to his arm as if it were the only thing keeping me standing, keeping me alive.

He pulled away, and I felt dead.

His smirk remained on his face though as though something about me signified him of his evil plots.

"Onegai!"

But he was gone.

Click.

And I was trapped.

_Don't forget, Akiko-chan._

"Stop it!" I screamed. That imaginary voice stabbed my head like a dozen needles prodding and poking everywhere in my mind.

The needle . . . with the sedative.

_Don't forget, Akiko-chan._

"No! Go away!" My voice was a deep moan, only tainted by my sobs. "I can't take it anymore."

Pound, pound, pound throughout my head. I was losing the battle, and I didn't care at all. The missing part of my life was just out of reach as it taunted me with its appearance of being close. I could brush my fingers against it, but I could never grab hold. And every time I strained, pain destroyed any determination I had. A lost cause . . .

_Don't forget, Akiko-chan._

"I don't want to remember! Leave me alone!"

The voice never left my head.

I felt several days pass by, as slow as years or as quick as hours. I lay on the ground, each of those days, only being forced to sit when Kabuto-sama came to feed me. He never spoke, and I knew he was waiting patiently for me to overcome whatever was happening. But there was no possible way I could.

That voice wouldn't go away, no matter how much I begged it to.

After a while, I realized that my memories were the something missing and that Kabuto-sama had been the one to dispel them. Did he miss that one memory, that one voice?

I could remember all of my dreams, none of which were nightmares, except for . . .

_Don't forget, Akiko-chan_.

Had I been asleep when someone had said that? Is that the reason the one sole memory remained, however small or broken it was.

I didn't care. Rivers of tears streaked my face, and I was too weak to wipe them away. I was alone in the dark, in the dark candlelight that lit the dark room.

I was alone.

The door opened, and I waited for Kabuto-sama to place me in a sitting position. He never did.

"Akiko?"

That same voice, the one causing all of my misery. "Go away!" I moved on my own for the first time in days to place my hands over my ears.

But he was not saying anything, merely standing there as he waited patiently for my arms to grow tired of pressing so hard against my ears.

I gave up ignoring him, for his voice still spoke inside my head. There was no way to block the noise of him out completely.

"Come with me."

"Nani, Uchiha-sama?"

"Don't call me Uchiha."

_My name is Uchiha _Sasuke_._

Sasuke-san . . .

"Come with me," he repeated.

"To where?" I followed him out of my room down the hall after he shut the door behind me.

He did not look at me as he walked, but I could somehow tell he had heard my question. He was . . . winter. What was winter? "Away from here. You're too young to be here."

I shook my head. "I can't escape."

He agreed silently with a nod. "Not on your own."

I hated this feeling, this familiarity of him when there was no memory to back it up at all! But I was sick of the pain, the pain, accompanying all my attempts to remember.

We strolled by the long lines of prisoners, and down the long line of cell doors. I stopped near one, sensing something terribly wrong within. Sasuke-san looked back at me impassively.

"Akiko, I don't have much time."

I paid no attention, for I hardly wished to escape at all. The desire to escape was probably another part of my missing memory, but knowing something was missing didn't help with the indifference.

"Akiko . . ."

"In there!" I said as I gestured to the door which had distracted me.

I head Sasuke-san stifle a sigh of frustration before following me inside. Orochimaru-sama was in there, and I immediately wished I had listened to Sasuke-san.

Orochimaru-sama turned around as my body shuddered with each move he made. "Oh, Akiko-chan, did Kabuto let you out finally? I'm glad you're feeling better."

I took a step back, against my own will.

"Sasuke-kun, are you the one who brought her here? You know what that could do to her."

I glanced at Sasuke-san, who was only glaring at Orochimaru-sama apathetically. As I looked farther in, I saw two other people—one was trembling with excitement, or fear, or both, while the other appeared extremely exhausted yet ready for anything.

The second one had glanced at me curiously as if he had not expected me to come here. Yet something about him, the feeling of his presence, was strangely familiar . . .

"Come here, Akiko-chan," Orochimaru-sama ordered.

"Hai." I came closer, dreading each step I took. To be truthful, I was wary and fearful of him. But I couldn't remember why.

Sasuke-san followed closely behind me. "Orochimaru, she's only eight—"

I had never told him my age, and yet he knew.

"She's a big girl. She can handle it," he interrupted before turning to me. "You see these two, Akiko-chan?"

I trembled as he placed a hand on my shoulder. "Hai."

"The tall one had a unique ability, and now that I've perfected it I'd like to test how it works in the Shinobi world," he continued. "The other one trained under a Seven Swordsmen when he was younger, so he'll be an excellent person to use, don't you think?"

"Hai—"

"Iie," Sasuke-san said from beside me. "Suigetsu Hozuki hasn't had full control over his body for more than two years. There's no way he'll be prepared for a fight like this after taking him out for a day."

Orochimaru laughed and sent my body into shudders again. "His loss. At least, my research on the cursed seal will be finally complete with no holes at all."

A fight where one had an advantage? How was that fair?

But I had no time to object for the two began fighting, and all I could do was watch with my wide, fearful eyes. The one named Suigetsu was losing.

Why did Sasuke-san not pull me aside, allowing me to forget all I was seeing? Why did he let Orochimaru-sama force me to watch this violence, this gruesome?

It was an unfair fight!

_You're definitely not winter, Akiko-chan._

Another voice, different from the one before. Was it this Suigetsu's? Had I met him before?

I felt Sasuke-san's eyes staring at me, noting every expression in my face. He had seen the familiarity. Maybe that was the reason he let me watch the fight; he suspected that my memories would resurface.

But there was nothing. I couldn't reach, and it hurt every time I tried.

I knew this was a fight Suigetsu Hozuki would not win. And I knew how Orochimaru-sama and Kabuto-sama dealt with the weak.

The fight wasn't fair!

"Juugo, feel your anger," Orochimaru-sama suddenly said. He was impatient to see the cursed seal, I could tell. "Let it consume you."

Suddenly a strange transformation began appearing upon the winning man's skin as it gave him incredible power. Tattoos streamed over his body, and he trembled with even more excitement. Even more power would lead to even deeper injustice. Who was this losing ninja, the one I was familiar with, the one who would die if the fight was not called off?

Suigetsu Hozuki.

_Autumn child? I think it suits you. Your definitely not winter, Akiko-chan._

Suigetsu-kun.

Suigetsu-kun!

_Get over here and heal me, will ya? I hurt all over . . . I wouldn't want you to get in trouble with that nasty Kabuto . . . _My head was aching, but I longed for the voices to continue. _Do you know how to pick a lock . . . _Something was happening._ Autumn child? I think it suits you. . . Will you come back tomorrow? _The back of my mind felt so full.

_No 'sama,' just Suigetsu, okay? _Suigetsu-kun, I had decided. _Yeah! That would work._

_So you've never tried to escape? . . . That's a really retarded reason, Akiko. No offense._

Suigetsu-kun.

_What are _you_ doing here . . . You again! _That redheaded girl was trying to kiss someone. I was laughing. _You're not half-bad, Akiko._

_So Karin is supposed to go to the South Base tonight?_

_The poor girl._

Karin-san.

_Don't touch me, or I'll kill you . . . Don't call me Uchiha. My name is Uchiha_ Sasuke . . .

. . . _Why did you say I'm full of winter?_

_Akiko, don't hesitate. Don't hesitate . . . What do you want, Orochimaru? _

His blood type, I knew, too. _AB . . . Akiko, why don't you escape?_

Kabuto's voice—_Her? I'll have her memory wiped, most likely. She's too defiant. She wants to escape._

"_What should I do," I had asked._

_I don't know. I'll stay with you until you're asleep. But then I have to go, all right?_

_Don't forget, Akiko-chan._

Sasuke-san.

I glanced at him and then back to Suigetsu-kun. The former Mist ninja was going to die if Juugo attacked, even I could know. Suigetsu-kun was staring at me, as well, and I returned my gaze to Sasuke-san.

He was still looking at me as if he were waiting for me to remember something. And I had remembered something—many things. The memories Kabuto had stolen from me . . . I had taken them back! For he had missed one single memory, a memory that had occurred while I was half-asleep, that stayed with me until the end.

_Don't forget, Akiko-chan._

I wouldn't forget.

My eyes pleaded with Sasuke-san, begging him to stop the fight. I put as much reason in as I could, the reason of remembering.

He had seen it, I knew he had.

Juugo was attacking Suigetsu-kun, and I was ready to jump in the way. Suigetsu-kun, one of the only friends I had finally found, was about to be killed, murdered by a monster!

"_Iie!_" I screamed, hoping to stop the fight with simple words.

But Sasuke-san had already moved, quicker than lightning could strike its target. I saw him appear in front of Juugo's attack, his arms spread, blocking Suigetsu from any attack. "Juugo, calm down," he warned, his usually onyx eyes now maroon and threatening.

The cursed seal withdrew from Juugo's skin. The transformation was gone. The attack was stopped.

I could feel Orochimaru's anger, radiating from the hand he had placed on my shoulder. He removed it and strolled toward Sasuke-san. I had never seen even a fraction of anger appear on his face, but now I could see the squinted eyes and his lips pressed firmly together.

"Sasuke-kun," his maniacal voice began, sending jolts of fear throughout my body. "What are you doing?"

"I will not allow this game to be played. If you really wished Juugo's strength to be tested, you would find a more worthy opponent, not one who's already about to collapse," Sasuke-san explained, his voice cold with anger. "This is just a way to fulfill your need for amusement."

Orochimaru-sama laughed as all traces of his anger disappeared. "I suppose you're right." He turned to Juugo, and commanded the prisoner to follow him. As he was leaving, he never turned back to glance at either of us. "Make sure young Hozuki finds his way back to his tank, Sasuke-kun. Then I will meet you where we usually train. Understood?"

He hesitated before nodding once, and then Orochimaru was gone.

I glanced at Suigetsu-kun, who was on all fours and taking deep breaths slowly. I knew something was off, for he would normally have said something witty or cheerful by then.

Sasuke-san noticed my concern. "He will be fine."

Will? How long would it take?

Still breathing heavily, Suigetsu-kun shook his head slowly as a smirk grew on his face. "Will be? I'm fine right now," he argued. "You didn't need to . . . interrupt the fight. I was doing . . . just fine on my own."

I knew he was only arguing with Sasuke-san to show that he was okay, but still the act made me sigh with relief.

Suddenly a throbbing pain swept through my head, and I fell to my knees in pain. My brain felt so full, so ready to burst open at any moment.

"Akiko?" Suigetsu-kun was looking at me with concern.

"My head hurts," I cried. "Everything came back at once. It hurts." But as soon as I spoke, the pain began to fade as quickly as it had come. I breathed in as deeply as I could, and the throbbing left even quicker. "I'm fine now," I explained as I stood up. "Gomen nasai."

"Don't be sorry for something that's not your fault," Suigetsu-kun responded.

Sasuke-san walked toward Suigetsu-kun. "At any rate, Orochimaru will be wondering what's taking me so long, so come on, Suigetsu."

"Come on? I just barely got out of that tank! You expect me to go back into it without a fight?"

Sasuke-san's eyes grew red again, and he looked back at Suigetsu-kun coldly. "Is that a challenge?"

"It could be—"

The throbbing had returned, but I held down the urge to flinch as I shook my head. "Iie. Please don't fight anymore."

Suigetsu-kun sighed in defeat. "Oh, all right. But somebody better get me out of there again some day."

As we walked down the long hallway of Otogakure, I stared at Sasuke-san's back. He was ahead of Suigetsu-kun and me while he led us to that secret room I had found in what seemed like so long ago.

I remembered that, just before I had regained my memories, he had been leading me to escape, to freedom. I had been scared then, for I didn't remember all I had learned from Sasuke-san, Suigetsu-kun, and Karin-san.

But now his words made sense.

He had said, "You're too young to be here."

I was only eight years old. I, who lived to help the dying experiments, was too young to be here. Sasuke-san was right. Did an eight-year-old child really deserve to be kept here, only because she could help the injured in a tiny way? No, he would say. And he was right.

I hoped Sasuke-san would help me escape, for I knew I would never be able to do so on my own.

I would escape.

Yes, I would escape. I was positive Sasuke-san would force me, even if I refused.

-Splasher-


	7. Chapter 7

_Author's Notes_: Sorry about the late update!! I was so busy I hardly even have enough time to get on the computer until yesterday, let alone read it over and get this ready to post. But anyway thanks for reviews! Enjoy!

_Disclaimer_: I do not own Kishimoto's characters, but I do own my original character Akiko and this specific plot.

_Japanese Words_:  
_-Kun_:An informal title, usually given to a male child  
_-San_: A less formal yet still formal version of "-sama"  
_Hai_: Yes! (usually said after a command has been given)  
_-Baka_: An impolite and informal title to give someone unlikable  
_Gomen nasai_: I am sorry.  
_-Chan_: An informal title, usually given to a female child  
_Sayounara_: So long.  
_Arigato Gozaimasu_: Thank you very much.  
_Arigato_: Thank you.  
_Konbanwa_: Good evening.  
_-Sama_: A title given to a person with much higher rank than oneself  
_Iie_: No.  
_Dewa Mata Suguni Ne_: See you.

* * *

The Candle Light

_Escape_

Suigetsu-kun had walked inside the room, the room leading to his prison. And before Sasuke-san could follow, I stopped him as hope glinted in my eyes. We were alone finally.

"I want to escape," I told him slowly.

He looked at me impassively and slowly nodded. "You'll need help."

I bit my lip and desperately hoped he would help me, even if he was full of winter and remorse.

"You want to say goodbye to Suigetsu?" he asked.

I nodded. "Hai."

"Be ready after you talk to him then."

I sighed in relief, and we followed Suigetsu-kun inside. Sasuke-san helped him get back inside the tank as Suigetsu-kun protested the whole time. After he was done, Sasuke-san left the room, telling me as he left that he'd be waiting. I felt the blood rush away from my face as I realized I would probably see neither him nor Suigetsu again after I was gone.

"Akiko, you look like you've seen a ghost," Suigetsu-kun began. "What's wrong?"

I forced a smile upon my face. "Nothing. Gomen nasai." It was difficult to keep my voice stable and cheerful. As soon as I had decided to leave Suigetsu-kun, I decided I wouldn't tell him. It would only make us both when we parted. Yes, _I_ was still sad, but _he_ could be happy, at least for now.

"I'm glad you remembered," he said. "Kabuto-baka will regret trying to steal your memories."

I shook my head. "No, it's alright. I got them back, didn't I?"

"Yeah, I guess."

The hard part was coming. Saying goodbye, pretending I would show up the next day. I was so sorry.

"Gomen nasai," I told him out loud.

"For what?"

I hesitated. "Nothing. Never mind."

My heart was thumping in my chest as it rose and rose into my throat. I was choking on my heart as it began to leave me. It would stay with Suigetsu-kun, my only friend, forever and ever. I would never take it back.

"Jeez, you're acting so strange today, Akiko-chan," he teased. "There's gotta be _something_ wrong."

I shook my head, still keeping the smile on my face. "No. I'm fine. Thank you for being my friend. I have to go now though." I knew he would see the farewell more as a "see you tomorrow," and I was glad he would.

"Yeah, Kabuto will be looking for you, I know," he agreed, his tone slightly annoyed.

I nodded and turned around. With my back to him, he could not see my face, so I let my smile fall and allowed the tears to flow freely down my face. "I'll miss you," I said, somehow keeping my voice stable. The smile still sounded as though it remained on my face.

I began leaving, opening the door, the only exit.

"Akiko-chan," he said suddenly, freezing me in my tracks. "This'll probably sound strange, but it feels like you won't be coming back tomorrow."

Inside of my throat, my heart choked me once again, making its final exit to remain in this secret room, to remain where my life had finally began.

I shook my head at his statement, and I could feel his confusion over what it meant. "Sayounara," I said and shut the door before he could ask anything else.

Sasuke-san was there, waiting just as he said he would be, and he appeared a little sad as well. "I'll tell him for you later, Akiko-chan."

"Arigato gozaimasu," I whispered as my strong façade drifted away from my voice.

He waited patiently as I cried and cried and cried. I was glad he didn't try to comfort me because I needed to let all my grief out. I didn't need to pretend it wasn't there; I needed to acknowledge it, accept it, and eventually it, keeping the feeling close within my memory. Finally there were no more tears deep within me to cry, and all that was left was the silence.

"Are you ready?" he asked after a moment when he noticed I wasn't crying anymore.

"Hai. Arigato."

He held out a hand, and I took it gratefully before he led me into the dark hallway again.

I saw the candlelight, the candlelight, glowing in the dark. The darkness was suffocating. But the candlelight was not. I frowned as we walked past the long rows of the same candlelight. Why did it no longer suffocate me? Why did it comfort me?

The candlelight was weak, yes, but it was still light. Dark light still had _some_ light in it, didn't it?

I smiled to myself. There was at least a single candlelight in ever darkness, and in every darkness there was hope. The hope could stink of odor and stench, but it was still hope in every aspect, in every way.

The candlelight was rotten. But the candlelight was light.

Suddenly my mood changed from content to fear as Sasuke spun around, onyx eyes searching the hallway behind us.

"What's wrong—"

"Shh, someone's coming."

He led me more quickly to a darker area of the hallway where the eye could see less. Sasuke-san pressed his back against me, trapping me between him and the wall.

"Stay behind me," he ordered bitterly. "And don't make a sound."

"Hai," I whispered.

I heard the steady beat of footsteps, matching the beat of my missing heart.

"Konbanwa, Sasuke-kun." The footsteps ceased their movement, and I recognized the voice to be Kabuto's.

Sasuke-san said nothing but I could imagine him glaring at Kabuto through those eyes of winter.

"Orochimaru-sama was looking for you," the medical ninja continued. "He said you were supposed to meet him at the place you normally trained."

"I know," Sasuke-san answered. "It's none of your business anyway."

"Of course not. I only mentioned it because I noticed you were heading in the opposite direction of where he wanted to meet you. Did you get lost?"

"Iie." He offered no other explanation.

I heard Kabuto chuckle. "You really need to learn some manners, Sasuke-kun."

A pause, no doubt filled with Sasuke-san's glare.

"It's very strange around here lately. I can't seem to find Akiko-chan either. Have you seen her lately?"

I stopped breathing. His voice told me how he suspected where I was and what I was up to. I pressed myself closer to the Sasuke-san's back, hoping I would disappear from existence, never to be found.

"Why would I know where Akiko is?" Sasuke-san challenged

"Why indeed."

Another silence lasted for a few seconds before Kabuto spoke, his voice laced with warning and suspicions. "I just might have to go ask Orochimaru-sama if he's seen her lately. _He_ might know who she was seen with last."

That would lead him straight back to Sasuke-san. I felt adrenaline rush through my body like the tide rushing in on an ocean each day.

"Well anyway," Kabuto said after his threat had settled in, "I better go. Dewa mata suguni ni."

His footsteps retreated, gradually fading from my ears. Just when they were gone completely, Sasuke-san grabbed my arm and pulled me down the hallway at a faster pace than I could keep up with. He was dragging me, rather than allowing me to walk.

"Sasuke-san—"

"Shh. We have to hurry."

"But—"

"I can handle Kabuto, but probably not Orochimaru yet. And he'll know what's going on soon enough. You have to get out of here before that can happen."

I closed my eyes in obedience and allowed him to pull me along. Orochimaru was terrifying, his snake eyes hypnotizing anyone fool enough to look into them.

I didn't want to look into them.

-Splasher-


	8. Chapter 8

_Author's Notes_: Sorry for the extremely late update. School has plagued me from all directions, and so has my creativity with original work. Anyway, thank you o0xOmniciousSilencex0o (I don't know if I said this, but cool username) for reminding me—because in all honesty, I think I forgot. By the way, this is the last chapter, and how silly of me, abandoning this on the _last _chapter? Hahahaha.... ha....ha...

My new advice is never try to describe something when you aren't allowed any words to describe it. :'( How are you supposed to describe trees if you can't use the words leaves or branches and don't want to sound dumb? Ugh!!!! :'( Hehe, I'm just kidding. No more complaining from me. Have fun reading the last chapter!

_Disclaimer_: I do not own Kishimoto's characters, but I do own my original character Akiko and this specific plot.

_Japanese Words_:  
_-San_: A less formal yet still formal version of "-sama"  
Yes! (usually said after a command has been given)_  
Arigato gozaimasu_: Thank you very much.  
_-Kun_: An informal title, usually given to a male child  
_Matte_: Wait._  
Iie_: No.

* * *

The Candle Light

_Bright_

Sasuke-san finally stopped, and I opened my eyes, still afraid of what I might see. "Do you know where Konoha is?" he asked.

I shook my head.

"Here's a map." Sasuke-san held out a rolled up parchment. "Do you think you can find it on your own?"

"I can try." I took the parchment.

"Konoha's ninja should be nice," he told me. "If you see one with a symbol on their headband that matches the one on this map, then ask them for help. All right?"

I nodded. "Hai, Sasuke-san. I'm sure I can make it."

"Good. I'll lead you completely out of Otogakure, then you'll have to continue on your own." Sasuke-san opened the door in front of us, and we were outside.

Outside.

Outside, away from the inside of Otogakure.

At first, my eyes were burning, begging to be closed. I did close them to halt the pain the brightness was causing them. They were accustomed to the dark. Light as bright as outside hurt them.

Finally ready, I opened them again, and what I saw amazed me.

Pink and orange swept across the endless sea of sky. Smooth, silver, puffy objects were tainted by that wonderful light. I had never heard of silver parts of the sky, the sky as blue as an ocean.

"Sasuke-san, the sky is partly silver," I said in wonder.

"They're clouds," he answered, still pulling me forward.

I smiled, and with my eyes I followed the rays of pink and orange and red to their source—the sun. I knew the sun right when I saw it; it was hidden under the clouds, but I could still see its gold, roundness—its beauty.

"Don't stare at the sun too long, Akiko," Sasuke-san warned, noticing my distraction. "It could blind you."

What he explained, I knew to be true, for my eyes already stung of fire and pain. Reluctantly I pulled my gaze away. "Why is the sky pink and orange, too? I heard the sun was only gold."

"It usually is just gold," Sasuke-san answered. "But right now, the sun is setting. At dusk and dawn the colors change."

"Oh." The marvelous wonder of it was simply fascinating. I had never been so happy in my life. "Then at sunset the sun is like autumn."

"Yeah."

When I finally tore my gaze from the sky, I saw an endless stretch of earth. Green and yellow carried on far. Detail littered the color. There were small . . . lines . . . that were so gentle to the touch.

I glanced at Sasuke-san for an answer.

"Grass."

After only another minute, we reached a place different than the grass. Huge masses of green, on top of trunks of brown stood in front of me, many of them hiding anything from view. I touched one, and it felt rough. As the wind blew, some of the little green ovals, springing from the emerald mass, fell down into my hair. I took one and ran a finger across it, smooth and beautiful. What was this green giant? It appeared so familiar though I knew I had never seen it.

"A tree?" I asked Sasuke-san.

"Yes."

I smiled even wider at guessing right. "And these are leaves?" I asked, pointing to the green oval in my hand.

"Yes."

The outside world was huge compared to Otogakure's feeble largeness. I would miss the safety, the seclusion of the Sound village, but I was more than ready for the outside. Consistency was reassuring, but I knew I could handle the change.

Sasuke-san took the map from me, and pointed to the green part of it, the forest. "This is where you are. And here's Konoha." He moved his finger to the leaf's symbol on the map. "The sun always rises in the east, and sets in the west. Do you think you can find the way?"

I nodded easily. "Hai."

"Take this, Akiko," he told me, handing me a small bag. "It has food. There will be plenty of rivers in the forest that you can get water from. And if you run out of food, there's plenty of ways to get it in the forest."

"Hai. Arigato gozaimasu, Sasuke-san." He really had planned this out, it had seemed. He already had all I would need, and . . . just everything. I never thought winter could care.

We sat down, quietly for a moment as I felt the air, the cool breeze not reeking of the stench of Otogakure.

"Sasuke-san, will you free Suigetsu-kun? And maybe convince Karin-san to leave?" I asked hopefully.

His onyx eyes appeared very deep in thought. "Yes. One day, I will. When I'm strong enough. Orochimaru won't let them go without a fight."

The sun had finally set, and darkness had driven into the sky. Sasuke-san stayed with me until the tiny bright specks of light appeared in the sky, and I knew they were stars. They twinkled brightly in the sky, but Sasuke-san—he was already bidding me his farewell.

"Matte . . . Please," I asked him.

He looked back at me impatiently. "They'll figure out where you are very soon, Akiko. You have to hurry."

I ignored what he told me and asked hesitantly, "Where's the moon?"

Silence was no longer silence outside in the world. I could still hear the steady chirp of crickets or the hoot of an owl. But between the two of us, Sasuke-san said nothing.

Finally he sighed and returned to standing next to me. He pointed to a small round ball in the sky. "Right there."

I frowned. The moon's essence could have been gray depending on how one saw it. But I saw it as silver. The moon wasn't white like the snow, or gray and full of sadness, but silver like the clouds. The sun was of royalty—gold. And the moon was silver.

But . . . it was so small.

"Sasuke-san, the moon is tiny."

I saw him suppress the tiny forming of a smile. "Yes. It's very far away." He began to take his leave once again. "Konoha is far away, too. You better hurry."

"How far away is the moon?"

"I don't know for sure. Very, very far."

"Is Konoha really as far away as the moon?"

"Iie. But it's far enough." He started walking back into the open field, the one leading him back to Otogakure.

I shook my head. "Sasuke-san!"

The raven-haired Uchiha looked back at me as he awaited what I had to say.

I only had to say goodbye now, for he had always been in my mind, even in the darkest of times. And he would _always_ stay in my mind, a memory that would never disband completely.

"I was wrong."

He waited patiently for me to elaborate.

"You were never full of winter. No one is."

Sasuke-san nodded once, and then he never glanced back again—never. But in every way, he was still looking. I would never miss him, for he would always be with me. Always and always.

I was only eight years old.

My whole life was waiting, and I had only started on the long beginning.

-Splasher-


	9. Epilogue

_Author's Notes_: Surprise! Chapter 8 was the last chapter, but there is an epilogue! Haha, fooled you, huh? I was lying secretly in wait to post this and FOOL ALL OF YOU! MUWAHAHAHAHAHA! -ahem- :-D But really this chapter will end it, and it's very short. There won't be a sequel! Sorry! :D And thank you to the people who have read this, even though there's a HORRIBLE, DREADFUL OC! Oh my goodness! OC's are wicked. -rolls eyes- Yeah, anyway, thank you all. ^^ It'd be really nice if you just reviewed, like... with the number 123, just so I know you liked it. But I guess you even reading it is good enough.

On a side-tangent, this fanfiction annoys me so much because it makes me call Orochimaru and Kabuto "Orochimaru-sama" and "Kabuto-sama" (and I hate them both), so . . . bleh :'( Now in real life, I'm starting to call them that, too! Ugh! And I'd rather call Sasuke-san "Sasuke-kun," but . . . nope, this fan-fiction thinks otherwise. Oh well. This chapter does end that little drift (I might have slipped up in a few places and put the "-sama" in, but . . . hopefully not.) I really have enjoyed writing this fic, by the way, despite my complaints.. :-P My split-personality doesn't. :-/ Sorry, enough rambling. Enjoy!

_Disclaimer_: I do not own Kishimoto's characters, but I do own my original character Akiko and this specific plot.

_Japanese Words_:  
_-Kun_: An informal title, usually given to a male child  
_-Chan_: An informal title, usually given to a female child  
_-Sama_: A title given to a person with much higher rank than oneself  
_Nii-san_: A title commonly given to an older brother.  
_Hebi_: Serpent.

* * *

The Candle Light

_Epilogue_

Orochimaru and Kabuto stood at the entrance of Otogakure as they waited for me. I was not afraid of them. I could handle Kabuto, and Orochimaru wouldn't be a problem because he needed me. Neither would be able to kill me just yet. And Akiko would be free, at last.

"Sasuke-kun," Kabuto began, "where is Akiko?"

I ignored him completely and shoved past both of them to make my way back into Otogakure.

"Sasuke-kun." This time Orochimaru spoke the words, and I knew I had to listen so I paused in my steps. "What were you doing out there?" he continued. "Someone could find this base if they saw you."

"I was training," I lied. I knew Orochimaru would never believe me, but I wouldn't submit to his commands. Telling the truth would make me appear a fool or a coward. Lies, whether they were believed or not, would only strengthen me in the eyes of others.

Orochimaru chuckled. "You know that's not true."

"I was training," I repeated and continued walking away, back to my room.

Orochimaru's hand stopped me as he placed it on my shoulder. As I looked back, I saw the purple scales begin to unfold from under his sleeve.

But I was quicker this time. I jumped back from his hold and dodged the snake's lunge toward my skin. "I don't fall for the same trick twice, Orochimaru. Remember that."

The snake was still slithering forward, ready to pounce and sink its fangs into me. I saw hunger radiating in its black eyes.

"Chidori!" I said as I allowed the blue lightning to flow outwards and kill the snake in a single shot. I was growing stronger each day, now able to control the shape of the Chakra I released.

One day soon I would be able to surpass even Orochimaru. After him, I would defeat my brother, as well.

Orochimaru laughed again, not even missing his precious pet after it was gone. "Very good work there, Sasuke-kun. But you _will_ tell Kabuto where Akiko-chan is."

I admitted defeat, for there was no way they would let me off without hearing the truth—or at least, the closest to the truth I would give. "I was training on my own, and I saw her leave. That's all I know. She's probably far away by now."

"Oh, is that it? She was such a lovely little girl, too," Orochimaru said, his voice full of anything but sorrow. "I'm going to miss her."

Kabuto adjusted his glasses and slid them farther up his nose. "Perhaps, she was right to escape because I would have given her back to Orochimaru-sama. He still hasn't found an eight-year-old to complete his data yet, and she was getting rebellious."

"You're right, Kabuto. She escaped at just the right time. Sasuke knew she had little time left. I wonder how _she_ knew I would kill her soon . . ." Orochimaru agreed, his eyes glancing pointedly at my own, and then he beckoned to me, a tint of comprehension deep within his snake-like eyes. "Come with me, Sasuke-kun."

As soon as we were away from Kabuto, Orochimaru turned and examined me fully. "You don't look tired from your 'training,'" he commented. "You're not even sweating a little."

I smirked. "Maybe it's because the Jutsu you've taught me is too easy."

"Still, maybe you should go rest anyway," Orochimaru said as warning entered the tone of his voice. A punishment—that's all it was. "I'll teach you something new when you act better behaved."

I turned away and began strolling back to my room. Who cared if Orochimaru knew where Akiko had gone? He would only waste his time searching for someone who could be easily replaced, and he knew that. Orochimaru would never look for Akiko, and I was satisfied that my attempts to free her had succeeded.

As I strolled down the hallways of Otogakure, noticing the empty light of the candles, I realized all I had learned paying attention to that girl. She had shown me Suigetsu Hozuki, a former trainee of the Seven Swordsmen. And because of him, I had met Karin, one who had an uncanny ability to sense Chakra. Then at the very end, Akiko had been drawn to the chamber in which Suigetsu Hozuki would fight Juugo. Juugo of Tenpim, the origin of the cursed seal.

Truthfully I plotted to kill Orochimaru one day and destroy one of the only threats that still lingered in this world. One day. Afterwards I would find my brother, Uchiha Itachi, who was not worthy of the name of "nii-san" anymore. I would kill him, too.

But avenging my clan would not be the easiest task. There would be diversions, detours, along the way, and I hated to admit that I would need help. I alone would kill Uchiha Itachi, but a team would prevent any interruptions.

I would call that team "Hebi" after I killed Orochimaru. And it would consist of three others, not including myself.

Suigetsu Hozuki, the second-coming of "Zabuza the demon."

Karin, a skilled ninja who was handpicked to help run things by Orochimaru himself.

And Juugo of Tenpim, the very origin of the formidable cursed seal itself.

They would all be seen as Hebi.

Akiko had led me straight to them, had helped me with my plan without even knowing it. And so I had decided to help her escape as a small token of my unknown gratitude.

But the road to Konohagakure was long and dangerous. Neutral territory, she would travel on. Ninja from other villages could murder her at any moment. She was only eight. If I had had a choice, I would have followed her all the way through the forest to make sure she would make it safely. But I had no choice, for Konoha would seize me and forbid me from ever returning to Otogakure.

On the other hand . . . Knowing Akiko, I foresaw that all would be well. She was stronger than most children, and she knew how to survive in tight places. She would arrive at Konoha, and they would take her in being the sympathetic Shinobi they were. Akiko would live a happy life, rather than that of a slave.

And if she never made it to Konoha—though I knew for sure she would—she would be free to wander heaven in peace.

I had been lying when I said that she was too young to live in Otogakure, but she would never have longed for freedom if I hadn't told her the lie.

Akiko was far more than old enough to live in Otogakure.

She was old enough to live in hell.

But she did not deserve it.

-Splasher-


End file.
